The Young Ones
by Inumimi1
Summary: InuYasha and Kagome end up on a new quest,in a parallel universe, with the most unlikely of partners - themselves!   Warning - story contains adult content.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and her Publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

*** Please note that this is a story I started several years ago and have posted to a few other sites under the name Inumimi or Inumimi1 - I will be posting chapters to catch up with the other sites as fast as I can reproof them and I am hoping to finally bring this story to a conclusion in the next month or two.***

THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS ADULT CONTENT, PLEASE DO NOT READ IF THIS WILL OFFEND YOU - THANKS!

Chapter 1 – Together at last

The past three years without Kagome had been a nearly unbearable torture for InuYasha, but that was now behind him.

The destruction of Naraku, the purification of the Shikon No Tama and the permanent return of Kagome to her own time had almost been too much for the lonely hanyou to bear.

But Kagome had returned, and now finally mated and wed to Kagome, InuYasha for the first time since his mother's death felt truly loved and almost more importantly accepted just as he was. Kagome's overwhelming love for him as a hanyou was finally allowing InuYasha to grow and mature. Everyone had noticed it; InuYasha was much calmer, laughing off situations that once would have set him into an irrational rage. The process of change had actually been slowly underway for some time before Kagome's return. Safe and accepted in Kaede's village, not having to fight for his very life every second of the day, had allowed the hanyou to start using some of his considerable intelligence. Miroku and Sango had been stunned to discover that not only could InuYasha read and write, but the education he had received during his early childhood, rivaled, if not surpassed their own in many areas. It was Kagome's unconditional love for InuYasha as a hanyou, however, that had the greatest impact on his personality.

During Kagome's absence much had happened to the once outcast hanyou. First Kaede invited InuYasha to stay with her, claiming she had become used to having others living with her. Then much to everyone's surprise Lord Sesshomaru appeared one day with little Rin, requesting that the child be allowed to stay and learn what it was like to live with humans. As far as anyone could tell Sesshomaru had finally decided that InuYasha was worthy of their father's blood and no longer sought to kill him. Apparently Sesshomaru even thought InuYasha strong enough to protect his ward, though there still was a great deal of nasty name calling on both sides.

Having assisted Miroku and Sango with the construction of their own hut, InuYasha undertook a renovation of Kaede's small home enlarging it to have separate sleeping quarters for Rin and Kaede off to one side of the main room, and on the far side of the home a small room for himself. Though InuYasha's room was rarely used more than one moonless night per month, it still gave the hanyou a sense of stability he had not had since childhood.

After the arrival of Rin and the birth of Miroku and Sango's twins, InuYasha took it upon himself to protect and provide not just for his friends but for the entire village. As the years progressed InuYasha's human neighbors seemed to genuinely accept and appreciate the hanyou as a part of their community. InuYasha knew that when he ventured forth from the safe confines of his village he would once more be considered a monster, but here he had a safe home.

Then one day, shortly after the birth of Miroku and Sango's third child, InuYasha once again felt that one aura he knew was the perfect match to his own.

Rushing to the bone eaters well InuYasha arrived just in time to reach down and pull Kagome over the lip of the well. At first InuYasha could only stare, the young girl he remembered had grown into a beautiful woman. Then as if suddenly released from a spell InuYasha gathered Kagome into a tight embrace. When after a few moments Kagome tried to pull back from InuYasha, the now determined hanyou simply scooped Kagome up and ran towards Goshinboku jumping high into its sheltering branches. Once safely seated on a wide branch with Kagome in his lap InuYasha seemed almost frozen as he gazed into Kagome's eyes. Finally allowing himself to truly recognize the yearning in Kagome's eyes he bent his head to deliver a small chaste kiss. Kagome's reaction was immediate. Determined to let her hanyou know exactly how she felt, Kagome pulled InuYasha's head down for another kiss that was neither small nor chaste. Pulling back for air Kagome silently returned her gaze to the beautiful golden eyes she had spent nearly three years dreaming about.

Finally InuYasha broke their silence "Kagome I've missed you so much, please don't ever leave me again."

"Never, InuYasha, I am never going to leave you ever again, you're stuck with me for good this time. I love you, I've always loved you." Kagome replied with a slight smile.

Unable to contain himself after so many years of waiting, InuYasha's only response was to hungrily capture Kagome's mouth, delighting in her small moan of pleasure as their tongues dueled, each battling for dominance.

When the couple finally pulled apart InuYasha quietly spoke "Kaede and Miroku will have felt your aura just as I did. They will be here soon and they will have a thousand questions. Before they get here I have to know, just now when you said you would never leave me again… Kagome, I know I'm just a worthless half-breed, but these last three years have been ... I was such a baka… I don't think I can live without you, I don't want to live without you, will you be my mate, will you marry me?"

Not wanting to leave her hanyou any room for misinterpretation Kagome quickly and emphatically replied "Yes InuYasha, oh yes! I think that's why the well finally let me return, so I can become your mate and wife!"

Kagome could not believe it, she had been through the well no more than 10 minuets and InuYasha had already asked her to marry him! Kagome had feared that after a three year absence she would have to start over with her shy hanyou, but now she had returned and could move forward into a new life with the only man she had ever loved.

Indicating that he planned on jumping down from their high branch InuYasha explained "Kaede, Miroku, and Sango are almost here."

The couple had just landed when the trio burst into the clearing. The next few minuets were a frenzy of squeals (from Sango and Kagome) and hugs. Finally calming down Kagome was able to explain how the well let her through this one last time so she could return to InuYasha.

For the next several hours InuYasha was content to sit back and let Kagome catch up on all that had been happening to her friends. Initially sad that Shippo and Kohaku were not there, Kagome realized that it was for the best that the two boys, youkai and human, were growing up and making their own way in the world.

Finally, as it grew late, Miroku, Sango and their three children headed back to their own hut. Kaede and Rin retired to their rooms, leaving InuYasha and Kagome sitting alone near the fire in the hut's main room.

Fearing that any delay might make her insecure hanyou regret his earlier proposal Kagome snuggled against InuYasha, closing her eyes as she rested her head against his broad chest. After a moment Kagome felt InuYasha's arms gently encircle her body, holding her close.

Eventually Kagome quietly spoke "InuYasha when I first got back today you asked if I would become your mate and wife. Is there a difference?"

InuYasha softly answered "Yes, youkai take mates, humans get married."

"So the youkai in you wants to take a mate and the human in you wants a wife. I know about marriage but what do you do to become mates?" Kagome inquired glancing up.

"Youkai mark their mates by biting each other on the neck and drinking a small amount of blood, that way all other youkai will be able to sense that they are mated." InuYasha replied blushing.

"InuYasha you're blushing, there must be more to it than just biting" Kagome replied with a smile.

"Well, when two adults mate they bite each other when, when they're … mating" the embarrassed hanyou was finally able to stutter.

Trying to give InuYasha a moment to recover Kagome inquired "Who else would mate but two adults?"

Grabbing at the chance to change the topic InuYasha replied "Youkai nobility, just like their human counterparts, often arrange for a political mating to unite great houses or settle wars. If there are no available adults, children can be selected to become mates. The children are only asked to bite and mark each other; they don't really mate till they're of age."

"I had no idea youkai society was so complicated. So some matings are just political?" Kagome mused.

"Of course they are, otherwise I wouldn't be here." was InuYasha's whispered reply.

"What do you mean?" A confused Kagome asked.

"Father's mate, Sesshomaru's mother, is still alive. She's a powerful Inu Youkai in her own rite, but if she and father had had a true love mating she would not have survived his death. Their mating was arranged between two great Inu clans in order to produce the perfect Inu offspring – Sesshomaru. Mama always told me that father loved both of us so much he gave his life for us, but I don't know if father ever had any love for his true mate, or if she loved him, since it was an arranged mating. As much as father may have loved my mother, he dishonored his mating bond; I've always wondered if that's why Sesshomaru hated me so much."

"So…so that would mean Sesshomaru is just the product of – good dog breeding, you're the result of true love." Kagome whispered hugging InuYasha even tighter.

After a few moments InuYasha quietly spoke "Kagome, you must be exhausted, you probably want to get some sleep; you can use my room."

Rising, InuYasha led Kagome into the middle of his room, not bothering to close the door. Kagome, unwilling to let her hanyou escape that easily returned to the door, firmly sliding it shut. Only then did Kagome look around the sparsely furnished room noting the comfortable looking sleeping mat and a beautifully carved chest.

Taking a deep breath Kagome returned to stand before InuYasha. Never breaking eye contact with InuYasha's beautiful golden eyes, Kagome first removed her sweater, then her blouse, next she kicked off her shoes, unzipped her skirt and let it fall to the floor. Standing in just her bra and panties Kagome reached out and started to untie InuYasha's haori only to have her hands captured by InuYasha's own.

"Kagome, you don't have to do this" InuYasha began only to have Kagome interrupt.

"InuYasha I love you, I want to become you mate. For the last three years I thought about you every day and longed for your touch every night. Please don't make me wait even a day longer."

In response InuYasha released Kagome's hands and began to help her untie his haori and then his kimono. Once InuYasha's muscular chest was revealed, Kagome found it impossible to suppress a smile of delight. Next Kagome untied InuYasha's hakama letting it fall to the floor.

Still smiling Kagome reached behind her back and unhooked her bra letting it slide off her arms.

At the sight of Kagome's breasts InuYasha could no longer control himself, reaching out to run his hands over the silky smooth mounds. With a groan InuYasha pulled Kagome into his arms hungrily running his lips over her neck, shoulders, breasts, trailing kisses down her torso only to be stopped by a pair of thin white panties. With a low growl InuYasha pulled the offending panties down and Kagome kicked them off spreading her legs apart in the process. InuYasha resumed his interrupted trail of kisses not stopping till he reached the nest of curls that was his goal. Kissing, nipping and licking at Kagome's warm folds and encouraged by Kagome's moans of pleasure InuYasha paid particular attention to her little fleshy nub not stopping his attention until he felt his future mate's body spasm with pleasure.

As Kagome gasped for breath she backed away slightly and grabbed InuYasha's arms, pulling till he stood up. Reaching out Kagome yanked down on InuYasha's fundoshi her eyes growing wide at the size of InuYasha's fully engorged manhood. Kicking his fundoshi out of the way InuYasha swept Kagome off her feet into his arms only to deposit her onto the waiting sleeping mat.

Turing his attention once again to the enticing nest of curls InuYasha once again began to nip and lick not stopping until he felt the wet rush of Kagome's orgasm once again. Grabbing Kagome by the waist InuYasha effortlessly flipped her over settling her on her hands and knees. Bracing herself Kagome expected InuYasha to simply mount her, but she was surprised when she once again felt InuYasha's lips and tongue this time tracing up and down the length of her spine.

Finally InuYasha draped himself over Kagome's back kissing her shoulders and neck. Whispering into her ear InuYasha instructed Kagome to relax and spread her legs, that he would have to mark her as a true Inu would. As Kagome nodded in understanding and spread her legs, InuYasha lubricated his huge erection rubbing against her dripping folds. Carefully centering himself, InuYasha slowly began to sheath himself, soon realizing that Kagome's maidenhead had not survived the various rough falls she had sustained years before.

Once fully sheathed, InuYasha held himself in check, ignoring his own bliss and letting Kagome stretch. Then holding himself up with one hand InuYasha moved his other hand to resume his attention to Kagome's pleasure center. Kagome was soon writhing in ecstasy begging InuYasha move within her. Giving in to her request InuYasha began to pump, growling in delight. Finally, as Kagome's channel began to spasm with the force of her pleasure, InuYasha felt his own orgasm explode and he latched onto Kagome's neck, biting down hard and drawing blood, not releasing until he felt himself finally slipping from his mate's body.

Chafing at the half formed mating bond, InuYasha helped Kagome turn to lie on her back. Centering himself over her body InuYasha once again slowly began to push into Kagome's tight wet opening. Moaning, Kagome wrapped her legs around InuYasha pulling him closer as he repeatedly slammed deep into his mate's body. As Kagome began to near another orgasm InuYasha slashed his own neck and quickly lowered the bleeding wound to his mates waiting lips. As she felt her body convulse with pleasure Kagome plunged her teeth into the bleeding wound not releasing till her orgasm had subsided to repeated spasms of pleasure.

As Kagome gasped for breath, still rippling with pleasure, she realized that rather than one huge orgasm InuYasha was experiencing pulsating orgasm after orgasm. Smiling at InuYasha's moans of ecstasy Kagome felt her heart almost explode, overwhelmed with her love. Needing to find some outlet for her overwhelming feelings Kagome found herself surrounding InuYasha with her miko aura. Then as suddenly as it appeared her aura seemed to be pulled into InuYasha. As she watched her aura disappear Kagome was suddenly overcome as she was hit by blinding orgasm after orgasm.

As InuYasha's wave of orgasms began to slow down Kagome gasped in realization that the pleasure she was experiencing was not just her own, but also InuYasha's. InuYasha finally slipped from Kagome's body, collapsing next to his mate. As the couple turned to lie facing each other InuYasha gasped out "Kagome at the end I could have sworn that you were with me, I mean really with me, I could feel everything I was doing to you."

Kagome gently began to rub InuYasha's ear replying "Me too I could feel what you were feeling – it was great!"

Gathering Kagome into his arms InuYasha whispered "I don't think that normally happens during a mating, even a true love mating like ours."

Pulling back to gaze into InuYasha's eyes Kagome admitted "I think it's my fault. After I marked you I was so filled with love I just had to let it out so I surrounded you with my miko aura. Then my aura just seemed to be pulled into you – that's when I started to feel what you were feeling. I hope I haven't purified any of your youkai energy."

Shaking his head InuYasha quickly replied "No I don't think you purified me, I feel fine in fact I feel great. If anything my youkai feels stronger, but that doesn't make any sense unless I made you lose your miko powers."

Kagome quickly assured her now worried mate "No I'm fine, it's weird, but I think my miko powers also got stronger. Your right this makes no sense, one of us should have had their powers weakened, actually as a mated miko I should have lost all of my powers. Miko's loose their spiritual powers when they just fall in love and marry other humans let alone mate with a hanyou. Perhaps it's because I love you as a hanyou and wouldn't want you to be anything else and you love me as a miko, neither of us wants the other to change so perhaps we didn't. Anyway let's not worry about it now, what's important is that we are together and will always be together."

Snuggling back into InuYasha's arms Kagome closed her eyes as her mate pulled a blanket over them. Within moments the couple was sound asleep.

Months had passed from that fateful day when Kagome returned. InuYasha had insisted that Kagome and he immediately have a proper human wedding. InuYasha might just be a hanyou but he'd be dammed if he was going to give any human in their village a reason to say that he wasn't doing right by Kagome.

Next InuYasha, with the help of Miroku, built a small hut at the edge of the village, which the happy couple promptly moved into (not a moment too soon for Kaede, who was relieved to no longer have to listen to the couple's vigorous nighttime activities).

At first Kaede and Miroku could not believe that Kagome could still have all of her miko powers, but time after time she was able to demonstrate that not only did she have all her powers, but they were stronger than ever.

No longer distracted by schoolwork or the looming question of what era she would live in Kagome was finally able to spend quality time with Kaede honing her miko skills and improving her knowledge of the various healing herbs Kaede employed. Also determined to be less of a burden to InuYasha, Kagome spent hours each day practicing with her bow; embarrassed by fact that in the past most of her best shots had been accidental.

With Sango still tied up with her newborn son, Kagome insisted on becoming Miroku and InuYasha's new backup demon hunter. Miroku's skill in getting the most outrageous payments for their demon hunting skills from the rich never failed to astonish Kagome and InuYasha. Even more astonishing to the couple was Miroku's compassion to those in true need, the trio ridding many a poor farmer or peasant of their demon problems for no more that a thank you.

More than anything, however, Kagome was determined that she and InuYasha were going to make time to have some fun. Having decided to hold off on children for a bit (having a husband who could small when you were fertile being a big help) Kagome and InuYasha often traveled the countryside hunting for every out of the way hot spring they could find.

InuYasha grinned as he leapt from tree top to tree top as Kagome, clinging to his back, squealed in delight. She had been such a good girl, practicing her archery all morning, that InuYasha decided she deserved a treat. The hanyou had never seen anyone who loved to soak in a hot spring as much as Kagome did, so with a picnic and blanket packed, InuYasha had decided to take Kagome off to their favorite mountain spring.

Landing lightly in the small clearing that lay next to the hot spring, InuYasha quickly set about laying out his special picnic treat. The hanyou knew that Kagome had given up all the luxuries of the future just to be with him and he was determined to give her as many special moments as he could.

As Kagome watched, InuYasha spread out a large blanket and then carefully started to lay out their meal. She was struck once again by the fact that while her mate rarely verbalized his feelings for her, he more than made up for it with his actions.

Joining InuYasha on the blanket, the couple enjoyed their leisurely lunch. As Kagome finished packing the remnants of their meal InuYasha reached over to pin his mate down on the blanket. Gazing into Kagome's eyes InuYasha slowly leaned in to kiss his mate's neck slowly nibbling and kissing his way up towards the pouting lips that beckoned him. Nibbling the full lips below him InuYasha finally thrust his tongue into the welcoming cavern only to battle with Kagome's own eager tongue. Pulling back InuYasha started to pull at the ties of Kagome's white kimono shirt and her red miko's hakama. Not waiting for InuYasha to finish undressing her, Kagome simultaneously began to pull on InuYasha's haori-himo loosening his firerat haori, then starting on his nagajuban and hakama. Kagome had to smile, now that she was wearing traditional clothes herself, she had come to appreciate just how correctly her mate always dressed. Excepting his bare feet, InuYasha was always dressed properly; though nowhere near as extravagantly as his older brother.

As Kagome pulled her thoughts back she smiled at her impatient hanyou who had zeroed in directly to her nest of curls, kissing, licking, and nibbling until Kagome was writhing in pleasure. Kagome moaned in delight, InuYasha always wanted to make sure she was dripping wet before he entered her, despite her assurances to the contrary, he was worried that his large size might hurt her. Within moments all rational thought left Kagome's mind as wave after wave of pleasure assaulted her. InuYasha moaned, reveling in the tight heat that surrounded him, holding himself in check, determined to take his lady love to the heights of ecstasy as many times as she could endure. Finally, unable to hold off any longer, InuYasha lowered his lips to the mark he left on his mate's neck, twisting to present his own mark to Kagome's eagerly waiting lips. As soon as the couple's teeth gently locked on each other's necks, just as on their mating night, their minds became as one, each feeling the pleasure and love of the other. Within moments, overwhelmed by physical and emotional rapture both lovers climaxed with such ferocity that they both nearly blacked out. Collapsing next to Kagome, InuYasha gathered his mate into his arms to rest.

Determined to make use of the hot springs Kagome finally began to sit up, pulling InuYasha with her. InuYasha responded by pulling his mate into his arms and carrying her to the springs. Within moments the couple was soaking in the relaxing hot water.

Unbeknownst to the happy couple their every move had been observed. Taking great care to suppress her aura and scent the O-Harai-Ya bided her time. Ever since their not so chance meeting at the Oni's Head Castle the old exorcist had planned and waited. The fools had thought her incompetent and old; lacking in any spiritual power. Not even the monk has suspected that she was suppressing her aura, hiding her true powers, playing the fool. Soon the time would be ripe for her to set her plan in motion.

Finding the couple had been simple, their auras' were so unique and powerful that devising a tracking spell had been relatively easy.

As the old exorcist watched the couple disrobe, her eyes grew large. InuYasha might just be a hanyou, but he was built like a daiyoukai, the little miko sure had a "big" prize there. As she watched the scene before her the old woman found herself becoming aroused. She smiled; as soon as she could, she would cast a glamour on herself and find a young man to service her. It was amusing, as soon as she was pleasured, the glamour would be dropped and the poor young man would realize he had bedded, not a beautiful young maiden, but an old hag. Even more amusing to the old Harai-Ya were the young men who, upon realization that they had been seduced by an old hag, became aroused by her true form, continuing to service her with even greater vigor! Yes that sort of fun would certainly keep her mind off of a situation that would soon be out of her control.

Bringing her mind back to the business at hand the old hag realized the couple had finally stopped mating and were entering the hot spring. Noting the sun's position in the sky she realized that she would soon have to start her preparations. The couple she selected to carry out her plan were both powerful in their own rite and she had no desire to end up on the losing side of a battle with them. Fortunately for her once the plan was set in motion neither InuYasha nor Kagome would be in a position to retaliate; that was the ultimate beauty of her plan.

Cautiously placing specially designed binding spells in the forest surrounding the hot springs the old exorcist sighed, now that the Shikon No Tama was purified and destroyed her only chance at achieving ultimate power was a legendary amulet of power and InuYasha and Kagome were the ones who would be forced to retrieve it for her!

Once the binding spells were set, neither the hanyou's nor miko's auras' would be able to escape the clearing. InuYasha and Kagome would be trapped and the old Harai-Ya would be able to proceed with her other spell.

Realizing that the couple had left the hot springs and had almost finished dressing, the old exorcist set her last spell and entered the small clearing.

"InuYasha, Kagome, how nice to see you again." The old hag thought it best to start out slow and easy.

"What the fuck is an old lady like you doing up here in the mountains in the middle of nowhere?" was InuYasha's blunt reply.

"I could ask the same of you hanyou, though on the other hand this is a perfect place for the two of you since you cannot travel to any human village. If anyone were to realize that you had despoiled a miko they would surly try and kill you. So a secluded mountain spring is a perfect place for you to visit."

Trying to diffuse a suddenly tense situation Kagome decided to change the subject "Lady Exorcist is everything alright? It's awfully far to the nearest settlement, did you get lost; do you need help?"

"Why yes I do need your help, how perceptive of you child. I find I am growing old and my powers diminish, I wish to increase my powers so I might once again regain my youth." 'No need to add that I really seek power to become the ultimate ruler of the world.' the old hag added to herself.

"What are you talking about old one, you never had any power. You wouldn't know power if it hit you in the head" was InuYasha's reply.

"I have no power you say. Well perhaps I should let you feel my true aura. Then you decide." With this reply the exorcist let her carefully constructed barriers fall, revealing her true powers to the stunned couple.

"I don't understand, why did you hide your true powers. Why did you let us think that you were just an old fraud?" was Kagome's confused reply.

"Why, so I could study the both of you. You are the fulfillment of a great prophecy, one that I intend to use. It is written that you are destined to retrieve a great relic of power, one that I want and will have. The relic was hidden in a world that runs parallel to this one, similar, but not quite the same, and only those who exist in both worlds can travel between the two. I do not exist in that world, but both of you do. You will retrieve the relic and you will bring it to me." The old exorcist paused noting InuYasha's increasing anger, she then continued "Do not even think of escaping or harming me InuYasha, I have placed spells of great power around this spring, ones only I can remove. Please feel free to test them if you don't believe me, they are linked to your youki and Kagome's miko aura and will prevent you from ever leaving this clearing. Oh and if you should kill me you will never escape this place."

Seeing that InuYasha did not intend on testing her barrier the old hag placed a package on the ground and then stepped back.

"Kagome gather your bow and quiver and give InuYasha his sword, then pick up this package. It contains all the information I have on the prophecy, it also contains the instructions on how return to this world once you have the relic. The return spell will only work if you posses the relic and you will be returned to this exact spot. I will know the moment you have returned to this world and will come to retrieve the relic. Once I have it, I will set you free from this place."

Kagome retrieved her bow, quiver, and Tessaiga and then darted toward the package and swiftly picked it up, she then returned with it to InuYasha's side, taking his hand with her free one.

As InuYasha reached for his sword the old O-Harai-Ya tossed a fragile glass ball filled with black smoke at the stunned couple. The ball split in mid-air surrounding the InuYasha and Kagome in a whirling black cloud.

Suddenly the cloud seemed to pull in on itself and the couple was blinded by a flash of blue light, as their vision cleared the confused couple found themselves in a garden. In front of them stood two wide eyed children, one a miniature copy of InuYasha and the other a perfect replica of a very young Kagome.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and her Publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Please note that the setting and characters that start in Chapter 2 were very much inspired by jaimed1968's story "Night Visitor", but I think my take on that situation is rather different. I hope you like it

Chapter 2 – The Young Ones

Kaede sat in her little princess's beautiful garden enjoying the late afternoon sun. She thought of Princess Kagome as her princess, she had cared for the King's only child since the day she was born, the day her beautiful mother Queen Hikari had died. Kaede had been Queen Hikari's most trusted servant and it was only right and proper that she take over the day to day details of little Princess Kagome's upbringing and become her most trusted servant. Queen Hikari's marriage to the powerful King Daichi had added a small, wild, forested province to protect the Northern border of the King's own, vast, powerful, desert realm, though it was soon obvious to all that this was a love match. After the death of his beloved Queen the King had vowed never to wed again.

Kaede sighed; as the King's only child Princess Kagome was expected to wed a powerful prince who could rule her kingdom. The only problem with this plan was Princess Kagome. Little, sweet, beautiful Princess Kagome was also smart, shrewd, and had no intention of ever letting any silly prince rule her land for her. The little Princess hadn't always been so headstrong. No that had started two years ago when HE had come into her life.

Kaede's mind wandered back to that day two years earlier when her little 8 year old princess had played in this very garden. It had been a beautiful day the sound of carts and horses gently drifting over the high garden wall. Kagome was amusing herself in the garden with three of her little playmates. Her playmates were all daughters of high ranking nobles and suitable companions for a royal princess.

A sudden scream shattered the day's peace as the little princess spotted a knot of monstrous lesser youkai swooping down from the cloudless sky. Playing a childish chasing game Kagome had become separated from her companions and would be an easy target for the flying serpents' attack.

Before Kaede could draw breath to call for help a small figure bound over the high garden wall flinging itself at the large knot of youkai. Within moments the half dozen monsters were laying dead in the garden, torn to shreds. Kaede realized the small figure was a shirtless, shoeless boy no more than 10 years old, with a beautiful mass of waist length silver hair, his throat encircled by a gold slave collar - no not a boy, but a golden eyed hanyou with perfect little dog ears perched on the top of his head.

When the boy realized that Princess Kagome stood only a few feet from him he froze before the mountain of now dead youkai, his head bowed down. Aware of the princess's sharp gaze he attempted to hide his bloody clawed hands behind his back.

Within moments the garden was filled with royal guards - and then a powerful, tall, broad shouldered figure – the King. Princess Kagome was the only child of a powerful King and no threat to the princess's life would be taken lightly; lesser youkai such as these would never have attacked a mighty fortified castle unless they had been directed to by one much more powerful than themselves.

As the King advanced on his daughter and the small boy Kagome ran to her father exclaiming in an excited rush "Oh Papa you should have seen it! He tore them to shreds with his bare hands! He saved my life! Who is he? Can I keep him?"

Just at that moment the guards escorted Yasushi, the castle's chief slave master into the presence of the King. Bowing low he began "Liege I beg you to forgive the child, we were in the adjoining courtyard unloading a wagon when InuYasha spied the youkai descending and feared they might harm someone. He is a loyal and obedient slave and only wished to help, I beg you to be merciful."

Ignoring the slave masters words the King inquired "The child wears the gold collar of one noble born, who and what is he?"

Casting a quick glance at his liege Yasushi began "InuYasha's mother Izayoi was a royal princess of a minor realm and his father was the great Inu no Taisho. InuYasha's father perished shortly after his birth and his mother died when he was but six years old. Upon his mother's death he was sold into slavery by his full youkai older half brother Lord Sesshomaru."

"I see, and how did he come to my castle?" was the great King's only reply.

Taking a deep breath Yasushi continued "No one at the slave market wished to purchase a hanyou, especially one of noble blood, but he was young, strong, and could both read and write, so I purchased him thinking he could be of some use to the palace. It was late when I arrived home with him and my wife thought him too small and fair of face to be put in with the general slaves, she insisted that we keep him in our own home where he still resides. As it turns out he has been of great assistance to me –despite his size and age he possesses many times the strength of a human. He is hard working, intelligent and loyal. There is no slave I trust more than InuYasha. He is inu, a dog hanyou, and his loyalty is pledged to your great house for life."

As Yasushi finished speaking, Princess Kagome planted herself in front of her father proclaiming "Papa – give him to me!"

"And what would you do with this dog boy if I did give him to you?" was the Kings gentle reply.

Kagome thought for a moment and stoutly replied "I bet he would be the best bodyguard in the whole world! No one could ever hurt me – I want him, draw up papers of ownership and give him to me!"

The great King cast his eyes on the object under discussion and realized that the boy had not moved a muscle, eyes still cast down, little dog ears almost flat against his head and his bloody hands still hidden behind his back. He realized the child wore nothing but loose black hakama in the style all slaves wore – tied at the waist and gathered at the ankles, his chest and arms while obviously those of a child were lean and hard.

Sighing and knowing that his daughter would keep at him till he gave in, the King addressed the little princess. "Kagome, it is not proper for an 8 year old girl to own a 10 year old boy." Noting the firm set of his daughter's jaw and how hard her eyes had become; the great King saw his own unrelenting determination in his daughter and almost smiled. Relenting he continued "You may have the boy as your bodyguard, if in 6 months I find that you have been a responsible mistress then I will give you the boy, but if you have been irresponsible…"

"Don't worry Papa" the little princess interrupted "he will be the best bodyguard ever!"

The great King sighed "Boy come here" InuYasha quietly moved to stand before the great King, eyes still lowered. "You will protect my daughter the Princess Kagome. She is now you mistress and you will obey her, but remember you are her bodyguard and her safety comes first even if it means disobeying a direct order. Do you understand?"

"Yes your Majesty I understand" These were the first words InuYasha had uttered and the King was surprised at the clear soft voice.

Grabbing InuYasha by the arm Kagome started to pull "Lets get all that blood off of your hands! Oh dear you've got blood in your pretty hair. Kaede, dismiss all of those silly girls; we have to get InuYasha cleaned up. InuYasha that's a silly name, of course you're inu, what else you would be with those pretty ears. Your name is Yasha from now on." InuYasha, now Yasha obediently followed the little princess, a sight that would soon become familiar to all.

Quickly dismissing the princess's terrified and forgotten playmates Kaede hurried to Kagome's rooms only to discover that the little princess had already taken charge, ordering the bath to be drawn and supervising the young hanyou as he diligently scrubbed his hands in a large basin of warm water.

Clucking over the poor boy like a mother hen Kagome instructed "Make sure you scrub under your claws or you'll just get blood in your nice clean bathwater."

Noticing Kaede's arrival Kagome continued "Kaede order up some nicer clothes for Yasha everything from shirts to shoes" At this request the small hanyou seemed for the first time to panic.

"Please mistress may I speak?" Kaede realized these must be the first words Yasha had spoken to the little princess.

"Of course you may speak – how silly, but I don't like being called mistress – makes me sound like an old lady, we'll have to come up with something better." was Kagome's quick reply.

"Please - my princess - I don't need shirts or shoes, please don't make me wear them, please" Yasha seemed genuinely upset by the thought of having to wear so much clothes.

Shrugging her shoulders the little princess replied "If you don't want to that's fine, BUT you do need to have nicer hakama, those are all patched up and you are now my personal bodyguard and I will not have you running around in rags."

As if in reply to the young princess's words there was a knock at the main door to Kagome's suite of rooms. Through the door the guard called "The chief slave master requests an audience with the Princess Kagome." Kagome and Kaede returned to the main sitting room and at Kagome's nod Kaede replied "Let him enter."

The doors opened and Yasushi entered carrying a small bundle. Bowing low to Kagome he began "If it pleases your highness I have brought some of InuYasha, I mean Yasha's things."

Kagome, curious as to what a hanyou slave might own, took the bundle to a small table and opened it to reveal a pair of black hakama made from much finer cloth that those he currently wore, a clean fundoshi (Kagome had the good graces to blush at the sight of a boy's undergarment) and a small portrait painted on ivory depicting a beautiful woman. Turning towards Yasushi with the portrait in hand Kagome inquired "Who is the beautiful lady?"

"That was Yasha's mother the Princess Izayoi. That is all he has left of her."

Under the watchful gaze of Yasushi, Kaede, and Yasha, who now stood in the doorway to the bedroom, Kagome took the portrait and set it on a small table next to an equally beautiful portrait of her own dear mother. Returning she gathered up the small bundle and took it to Yasha with the words "You better get that blood out of your hair before the bathwater gets cold. Then you can change into these." Wordlessly Yasha took the bundle and passing through the bedroom returned to the bathing room shutting the door behind himself.

Over the next three months Yasha diligently took over all aspects of little Princess Kagome's protection. He insisted on locking the servant's doors to Kagome's rooms and required that all be forced to enter via the guarded main door. He had trees cut back and vines removed so that none could gain entrance via the large balcony which overlooked her private garden.

Kaede had been shocked the first night Yasha was with them when the boy ignored the small couch that had been set up outside Kagome and Kaede's bedroom and insisted on sleeping on the floor, arms hugging his legs, his back resting against the side of Kagome's large bed. After that first night Kagome had a large flat cushion placed on the floor along with a blanket, never questioning the propriety of the boy sleeping in their room. Kaede could see from her small couch against the wall that Yasha slept lightly. She often woke to realize the boy's golden eyes were open, scanning the dark room for possible intruders.

These were not the only changes that occurred over the months. Kagome and Yasha became inseparable, whether playing in the garden (the little princess's old playmates forgotten and ignored),exploring the vast castle and it's many secret passages, or just sitting quietly on the princess's large balcony as Yasha let the little princess comb his long hair, they were always together. Kagome's tutor finally even insisted that if the boy was going to stand guard during her lessons he might as well sit and study alongside the princess. The unexpected side effect to the new tutoring situation was that Kagome found herself enjoying her lessons more knowing that Yasha was also benefiting from them.

Yasha, eventually, was even able to partly explain his odd dislike of shoes and shirts. His dislike of shoes was easily explained, they pinched his clawed toes and made it nearly impossible for him to run and jump. His dislike of shirts was harder to explain, the best reason he seemed to come up with was that his older brother had stolen his rightful inheritance, a firerat haori that being youkai made always seemed to fit him perfectly. He refused to wear anything else.

Then there was the first night of the new moon after Yasha came to them. The little hanyou had been extra cautious that day, checking doors and locks repeatedly. Finally as the sun began to set the boy settled at his princess's feet and head hanging begged for his princess's forgiveness for being nothing but a weak hanyou. Then before their eyes InuYasha's long silver hair turned black, his claws and fangs disappeared and his dog ears seemed to vanish only to reappear as perfectly normal human ears, finally the boy raised his now deep violet/black eyes towards his mistress. Princess Kagome's reaction was immediate, she shut all the windows drawing the shutters, she instructed Kaede that no one, no guard, no servant, not even the King himself was to set foot in her chambers. The young princess grabbed a blanket and a large book and sat down on the floor next to the now human boy, reading stories out loud and keeping him company throughout the night, not slipping into her own bed till the dawn and Yasha's retransformation.

Then one night it happened.

Kaede remembered being awakened from her sleep by a heavy thump. As she sat up in her bed she saw that Yasha was no longer on the floor by Kagome's bed. Quickly uncovering the small oil lantern she kept lit by her bed Kaede was shocked to see InuYasha standing over the bloody body of a huge man dressed in the tight fitting body armor of a master assassin. Yasha's hands were once again covered in blood, but this time blood also streamed from a deep cut running the length of his right arm. Giving Kaede no time to react, Yasha bound to Kagome's bed easily lifting the half awake girl and depositing her on Kaede's cot.

"Don't let her out of your sight" Kaede could only nod mutely at Yasha's command.

Kaede heard Yasha run through the outer sitting room and open the main door to the suite of rooms. She then could hear Yasha calling for guards, alerting the castle that the Princess's guards had been killed and an assassin found in Princess Kagome's room. Within moments Yasha had returned to kneel next to the now fully awake princess taking her hand and gently asking if she was alright. With the oddest sense of Déjà vu Kaede watched as their bedroom filled with guards and then the King entered. As the King paused to gaze at the dead intruder it became obvious that Yasha had killed the assassin within seconds of his entrance into the room. Before the King could advance towards his daughter and her protector a guard rushed in to inform the King that the assassin had killed a total of nine of their finest guards in his effort to get to the sleeping princess and that the entire castle was being searched, though master assassins like this one generally worked alone. Dismissing the guard the King walked over to his daughter. Once Kagome had assured her father that she was perfectly fine she proceeded with a request.

"Papa, Yasha was hurt because he has no weapon save his claws, may I give him a sword and have him instructed in its use?"

The King hesitated for a moment glancing at the dead assassin and then replied "Kagome, come to my chambers tomorrow, I am turning ownership of Yasha over to you. You can then have him trained any way you wish. It seems you were correct when you said he would be the best bodyguard in the world."

Ignoring the guards who were removing the body of the would be assassin Kagome ran to the bathing room, returning with a wet cloth to clean Yasha's arm, the hanyou insisting all the while that his arm needed no tending and would be fully healed by morning.

The great King shook his head as he left the room. The sight of the dead assassin and all that blood didn't seem to bother Kagome in the least. His little girl didn't have a squeamish bone in her body; she was ruthless and shrewd, if only she had been born a boy, what a king she would have made.

Ownership of Yasha only seemed to strengthen Princess Kagome's headstrong nature. She persuaded the best swordsmen in the castle to train Yasha (after wheedling the finest of swords from her father) and then insisted that she too should learn a weapon. The only weapon deemed suitable for a princess was the bow so while Yasha trained with the swordsmen Kagome practiced with the archers.

Despite his youth and size, Yasha's immense strength and agility soon made him a swordsman to be reckoned with. Privately his instructors agreed that once fully grown the hanyou would be a warrior that none of them would ever wish to face in battle.

Kagome, determined to prove that one day she would be strong enough to rule her own kingdom, proceeded to hone her skill with the bow to a deadly precision.

As Kaede sat in Princess Kagome's beautiful garden she reflected on the fact that months had turned to years, Kagome was now 10 and Yasha 12. Only one other serious attempt had been made on the princess's life, the three would-be killers torn to shreds by Yasha. Still Kaede worried, Yasha's presence might put an end to outright physical attacks, but there were always other, more subtle, ways to bring down royalty.

Shortly after the incident with the three killers Kaede noticed a disturbing change in her little princess. Once or twice a week she would wake in the middle of the night only to realize that her princess had slipped out of her bed to sleep curled up in the arms of her young protector, only to return to her bed before the break of dawn.

Kaede worried as she could not but overhear some of the children's whispered conversations. Kagome stressing that they both must remain innocent children for as long as they could. That the moment they started to grow up they ran the risk of Yasha being taken away. While two small children were seen as cute playmates, a young lady and man would be seen as unsuitable companions, especially if one was a princess and the other her hanyou slave. Kagome was determined that no one would ever have an excuse to take her companion and guardian away from her, she thought Yasha the bravest, most beautiful, wonderful creature in the world. In turn, Yasha's devotion to his princess bordered on worship, her safety and happiness his reason for living. What complicated the issue was that fact that Kaede knew that the two children's love for each other only grew stronger each day and that someday their love would no longer be so innocent. For the moment, thought, they were still children - and innocent.

Kaede sighed; she knew her loyalty lay with Princess Kagome. The princess's happiness was to be preserved at any cost and if that meant keeping Kagome and Yasha together, so be it.

The objects of her thoughts were currently playing one of their favorite games. Yasha was running along the castle's parapets making impossible leaps from one roof to another with the princess perched on his back squealing with delight. As Yasha made the last leap down into their garden a sudden rush of wind blasted them. Time seemed to stand still and then a flash of bright blue light. When Kaede could see once again she beheld an unbelievable sight. There stood Princess Kagome and Yasha hand in hand staring wide eyed at a couple that had suddenly appeared before them. A beautiful young woman with long black hair dressed as a miko held the hand of a tall broad shouldered, golden eyed, silver haired Inu hanyou dressed in a red haori and hakama. The mysterious couple returned the children's stares, though theirs were filled with confusion.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended

**Chapter 3 – Two and Two**

InuYasha could only stare at the miniature versions of himself and his mate. With his first breath of hot desert air he knew many things. First, Kagome and he were no longer in their own world, even when he traveled to the future, the air may have been dirty, but that air told him that it was still the same world. Second, the Inu hanyou child who stood before him smelled exactly as he himself did at a very young age. Third, the little girl was Kagome, but like his own miniature, very young, neither child had begun the change into adulthood. In the few seconds it took his mind to process all the information his nose had sent him InuYasha also realized that his small counterpart's nose would be sending him similar information about Kagome and himself.

Turning slightly towards his mate, InuYasha decided he should be the one to break the quartet's strained silence. "Kagome we're not in our world anymore. These two kids, there're us, but very young."

Kagome nodded her understanding and said "The O-Harai-Ya said she was going to send us to another world and that we already existed there." Turning to the children she continued with a small smile "My name is Kagome and this is InuYasha and hard as this is to believe I think we're you, I mean we're you older and from another world. I know that doesn't make much sense, we were sent here against our will – it's a long story. Well actually it's not that long a story, but…well the point is we don't mean you any harm or anything like that."

InuYasha snorted, the little version of himself looked like he was going to explode any second so he took over from Kagome. "Listen kids we're not here to hurt you, is there somewhere not so out in the open we can go and talk?"

Finally Yasha spoke, turning towards his mistress "My princess, they are what they say, us - only older. I can smell it. I can also smell that the air that clings to them is not of this world and reeks of magic. Perhaps we should go within and find out what's going on. I don't believe they mean us any harm."

The princess nodded her head, glanced over to the corner of the garden and said "Kaede come with us inside, I order you to say nothing." Then glancing at her large counterparts she ordered "Come, my rooms are safe and no one may enter without my permission on pain of death."

Without a backwards glance the little princess strode towards the door that lead to her rooms. With Yasha pointedly waiting, InuYasha glanced at Kagome who shrugged her shoulders and they followed the princess into what appeared to be a castle, followed by Kaede and Yasha.

The small door led immediately to a staircase, after climbing to the second story the group passed through another small door which Yasha closed and locked securely behind them, just as he had done to the door on the lower level.

As they entered the suite of rooms Kagome stopped and gasped. The rooms were magnificent, thick carpets were strewn over marble floors; rich fabrics covered the chairs and small divans that were scattered around the room; magnificent tapestries hung from the walls.

InuYasha on the other hand was drawn immediately to a small, prominently displayed table, his clawed fingers caressing the edge of the small portrait of the Princess Izayoi. After a moment, when InuYasha realized that all eyes were on him, he turned towards the others snarling "Well what the fuck are you all looking at?"

Crossing the room back towards the others he stopped to look at the woman little Kagome had called Kaede. Turing towards his mate he commented "She looks just like our Kaede, but she still has both eyes." Turning towards the children he added "Our Kaede lost one of her eyes when she was a child."

Seeing how the little group was just standing around, the little princess decided that if she was ever going to find out what was going on she had better take control. Pinning the others with a sharp and commanding glance she took control saying "We are going to sit down and you two are going to give us a clear, concise explanation of who you are, and why you are here."

Striding over to a large round table the princess sat, indicating with a flick of her hand that the others were to join her. Slightly amused at the small girls imperious attitude Kagome and InuYasha sat where indicated as did Kaede. Only Yasha did not join the group at the table, standing behind the small princess's chair his arms folded across his bare chest; his eyes hard and suspicious.

Glancing at InuYasha Kagome began "As I mentioned before my name is Kagome and this is my mate and husband InuYasha. We were sent to your world against our will by an evil sorceress who we thought was just a harmless old exorcist. She wants us to retrieve some sort of relic of great power for her, and we cannot get back to our own world without this relic. The sorceress told us that we could travel to your world because we already existed there; I guess that would be the two of you, even though you're younger than us. By the way I'm 18 and InuYasha is…well he's about 200."

Princess Kagome and Yasha were both startled at hearing that the adult InuYasha was 200; he looked to be 20 at the most.

The Princess interjected. "I am the Princess Kagome heir to the throne of Sabaku, Kaede is my servant, she's been with me since my mother passed when I was born, Yasha is my slave and bodyguard; I'm 10 and Yasha is 12."

Kagome was appalled, realizing that the heavy gold band encircling Yasha's neck was in fact a slave collar. Glancing at her mate Kagome was stunned; InuYasha did not seem overly upset at his counterpart's status! Outraged she spoke to her mate "InuYasha how can you just sit there so calmly, he's a slave and that's a slave collar!"

InuYasha calmly replied fingering his beads "And what the fuck do you think these are my wife? I belong to you as surely as he belongs to her. That's just the way it is. No need to get all outraged, though I think a gold collar is a bit extravagant."

The little princess and her slave both seemed mildly amused by the older couple's conversation, the princess took Yasha's hand in hers and commented "Of course Yasha's collar is gold it's his right. He may be a slave, but he is noble born on both his human and youkai sides. No one may own him who is not of noble birth. Technically all of the slaves in the palace are owned by my father, the king. All except Yasha, he's mine. He was sold into slavery by his nasty older half brother; I think he is much better off with me."

InuYasha turned to his mate and added "This isn't our world; it's not our place to make judgments. After my mother died, I was free as a bird and look what it got me. Every human and youkai who saw me tried to kill me just for being a hanyou. Let's just open the fucking package and find out where the fucking relic is. We get the relic, we go home and we take out that old hag. It's that simple."

Kagome bowed her head down slowly untying the strings that held the package closed. Perhaps InuYasha was right. The way the little princess tenderly held Yasha's hand spoke volumes.

Kagome pulled the package open only to reveal two scrolls and another small packet. Raising her head Kagome sighed. "I'm afraid we'll have to read these scrolls to find out just what this relic looks like and where it is. The small packet is marked not to open till the relic is retrieved, probably has the instructions on how to get home."

Unrolling the first scroll and reading as she spoke Kagome commented "We really should not impose on you any longer. Our presence will be hard to explay….crap!"

Quickly glancing at everyone at the table Kagome continued "Sorry, but I better read the first lines on this scroll. 'Four shall quest for power great, four yet two and two, alike yet different, old yet young. Quest not and die, succeed and live.' It goes on and on and the rest isn't quite as clear as those first lines. It's pretty obvious that we're alike yet different, old yet young. I'm not sure about the 'four yet two and two', it could refer to the fact that there are two of each of us or it could refer to the fact that you are a Kagome and Yasha pair & we are a Kagome and InuYasha pair. I'm sorry, but it looks like you two may be part of this mess."

The small princess leaned back in her chair, her eyes grew hard as she steepled her fingers and spoke "That scroll sounds like a prophecy alright; they're dangerous things to mess with. You have to be very careful to get every little thing right, make one error and" the little princess pulled her finger across her neck. Everyone knew what she meant.

The princess continued "As much as I hate to do this, I think we may have to tell my father. He has great scholars, human and youkai, at his disposal and we may need them to figure out what these scrolls want us to do."

Turning to his princess Yasha commented "My princess, his majesty is never in the best of moods in the evening. Perhaps we should hold off letting him know till morning. That will give us a chance to read more of the scrolls and perhaps have a better idea as to what we will have to do. Your safety is always his first concern and if something in the scrolls is not to his liking he may withhold information from us, with disastrous results."

Nodding in agreement the little princess turned to the others "He's right, father may try to hide information from us. We need to let him know, but let's first get a general idea as to what the scrolls say." She then turned to Kaede stating "Kaede order dinner for us and tell the cook that Yasha is extra hungry tonight, she knows how much he can eat when he's hungry and will make enough to feed an army. We'll hide these two here tonight and in the morning I'll ask for an audience with father."

Kaede nodded in understanding and quietly unlocked the door and left the suite, the small hanyou following her to the door, locking it after the faithful servant had left.

As soon as her protector had returned to sit at the table the princess turned to him and said with a smirk, "Well at least you and I turn out pretty good looking when we grow up." She then continued in a more serious tone "We've been worrying about what father will do when we start to grow up. If he tries to take Yasha away from me, we may have to do something drastic. Even if we don't get separated, father will try and marry me off to some prince when I turn 18, I won't let that happen. This is my realm and I have no intention of letting anyone rule it but me." The little princess somehow felt compelled to tell these two total strangers things she had only dared to share with Yasha, still her eyes had grown hard and cold as she finished speaking.

InuYasha's ears flattened and his eyes grew wide, Princess Kagome was one tough little girl, probably much more dangerous and calculating than his own mate.

As if he could read his counterpart's mind, Yasha started to chuckle then commented "My princess, I think you've frightened my counterpart." Then glancing at the two elder versions added "She normally doesn't let anyone know how smart and dangerous she really is. I think the king has an idea, but he never says anything."

The princess nodded adding "You have to grow up fast around here, I'm 10 years old and there have been 6 serious attempts on my life that I know of. Three just in the last two years, that's why father let me have Yasha, he's faster, stronger and more dangerous than any human in this palace. He's killed both youkai and humans that have tried to get to me, including a master assassin who turned out to have over 250 kills to his name."

Deciding that is was time to return to the problem at had the princess continued "While we're waiting for dinner why don't we start to read the prophecy."

Unrolling more of the first scroll Kagome continued to read, it was mostly nonsense interspersed with lines that seemed to be concrete instructions. By the time Kaede returned everyone was thoroughly confused and frustrated. Kagome and InuYasha were instructed to hide in the adjoining bedroom while servants brought in dinner.

After the servants left, the group rejoined for dinner, the two hanyous in a seeming contest to see who could eat the most. As the group ate, the princess filled Kaede in, letting the old servant know that while most of the prophecy was beyond their ability to decipher they had gleaned a few facts. There was a passage that referred to a forest in the North; the princess was convinced it referred to the land that her mother had brought to the kingdom as her dowry. The scroll also referred to a crown of destiny, though it did not seem to be the relic they were to search for. The scroll seemed to reiterate over and over that the quest could only be fulfilled by the four who were two and that if all four did not remain together disaster would result.

As the hour grew late all agreed that the princess had been correct, they would need the assistance of the king and his scholars.

The group moved to the bedroom where Kaede loaned Kagome one of her sleep robes and the princess indicated that Kagome could share her huge bed. The two hanyous settled on the floor, Yasha in his regular spot by the side of the huge bed and InuYasha at a strategic spot where he could sleep propped against a wall and keep an eye on the door to the room. As InuYasha settled on the floor with Tessaiga in hand, the little princess grabbed an extra blanket offering it to the amused hanyou, before she scampered back to her bed.

As everyone settled in for sleep Kaede wondered if the two Kagomes would actually make it through the night in the huge bed.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Chapter 4 - Interview with the King & A little Ear Time**

Chapter contains adult content!

Much to her surprise Kaede awoke the next morning observing that both Kagomes indeed were still in the huge bed, fast asleep. The two Inu hanyou on the other hand were wide awake though neither had moved from their selected vantage points.

Quietly rising Kaede motioned for the two hanyous to follow her towards the bathing room door. When the two had joined her she whispered that if they were to see the king, a quick bath would be in order and since they were basically the same person she reasoned sharing a bath should be no problem.

After Yasha and InuYasha entered the bathing room, Yasha headed to the large sunken tub and opened the valves which would let hot water quickly fill the tub.

Turing he saw that InuYasha was already stripping. He realized that his adult version knew exactly what he had looked like as a child, but Yasha was somewhat nervous to see what he would look like as an adult.

Not wanting to be caught staring Yahsa started to undress, since he wore so much less clothing than InuYasha they both finished undressing at the same time. As they both entered the bath Yasha stole a quick look at his future. He already knew that compared to a human his own age he was more than well endowed, but wow he still had a lot of growing to do.

Noticing his younger version's embarrassment, InuYasha gave a low laugh adding "Don't worry kid, that's one department you won't have to be concerned about, just give it time. Speaking of time we had better wash fast and get out of here. If your Kagome is anything like mine they'll be barging in here any second to get to the bathtub."

Nodding in agreement Yasha quickly washed and stepped out of the tub. Drying off with a large towel Yasha tossed another towel to his counterpart who was just exiting the tub, commenting "Don't shake yourself dry in here, my princess gets real mad if there's water everywhere. You can go to the terrace and shake your hair dry if you want to after your dressed."

Taking his counterpart's advice InuYasha quickly dressed and followed Yasha through the bedroom and out to the terrace where the two Inu youkai were able to shake most of the water out of their hair.

As soon as the hanyous had vacated the bathing room Kaede refilled the tub for the two impatient Kagomes. Stripping, the two girls lowered themselves into the hot water.

Kagome only hesitated a few moments before asking the young princess "Yesterday you said if your father tries to separate you and Yasha that you would have to do something drastic. I understand that if you feel about your Yasha the way I feel about InuYasha you would do almost anything to stay with him, but what exactly did you mean?"

The princess thought a moment before speaking "Yasha is the most important person in my life, I know I'm only a child, but I love him so much it almost hurts. That's why I think father will try and separate us; as soon as we start to become adults he thinks… well that I won't be in any condition to be married off to some prince anymore. So when I said we might have to do something drastic I meant we might have to run away."

"Um, exactly how do you know about well - not being in any condition to be married? You're sort of young to know about that stuff" was Kagome's hesitant reply.

"Oh, Yasha and I have explored almost all of the secret passages in the castle. You'd be surprised the sort of stuff that's going on around here and we sort of saw things so we know all about that stuff" the princess candidly explained.

Kagome considered the young princess's words before commenting "I don't know why, but I have the oddest feeling that our quest may hold the answer to your problem, but let's not mention that to the King."

Out on the terrace InuYasha bonelessly dropped to the floor, studied his young double and inquired "Why do you always call her 'my princess'?"

Yasha shrugged his shoulders and dropped to sit opposite InuYasha and replied "She said 'My lady' and 'mistress' just sounded too old and stuffy for her. I asked if I could call her 'my princess' and she seemed to like it so that's what I call her."

"Yea, but it almost sounds like she belongs to you, not the other way around" InuYasha countered.

"Well I guess we sort of belong to each other" was the young hanyou's quiet reply.

Noticing the somber appearance of the two freshly bathed Kagomies as they approached the terrace, InuYasha quickly decided to lighten the atmosphere. As soon as the girls drew near he began to vigorously scratch his ear with one of his feet. If the princess was anything like his mate, the sight of this ever so dog like behavior would bring a smile and a giggle. InuYasha was not disappointed; the two girls instantly began to laugh. Putting on his most innocent and confused face InuYasha pretended not to understand why he was being laughed at, which only produced more laughter.

As InuYasha glanced at his younger counterpart he realized the boy had not been fooled, he understood exactly what InuYasha was up to. Deciding to play along the boy innocently ask "What are you two laughing at? An itchy ear isn't that funny!"

This only sent the princess and Kagome into renewed bouts of laughter which were only interrupted by a knock on the door announcing that Kaede had returned with their breakfast.

Quickly hiding in the bedroom InuYasha and Kagome only emerged when given the all clear.

As they all sat down to eat, the princess began "I already had Kaede deliver a note requesting an audience with the King. I requested to see father here in these quarters, but that there is a good chance that I'll be summoned to his study. If that's the case I want your opinion should I see father alone, with just Yasha, or do the both of you want to come along?"

In the end all four agreed that a united front was the safest. If the princess was summoned to the King's study all four of them would go together.

The group was still eating when there was a knock at the door and a guard announced that a message from the King was to be delivered to the princess.

Quickly Kaede unlocked the door, only opening it wide enough to take the King's message, delivering it immediately to the impatient princess.

"He will be very happy to see me in his private study in 30 minuets. We'll have to walk through quite a bit of the castle to get there, so I guess everyone who's anyone will see you." The princess announced.

InuYasha glanced at Kagome who suddenly looked very nervous, as did the princess and Kaede. His counterpart was keeping all emotion from his face, but InuYasha was not fooled, his smell of nervousness was just as strong as everyone else's. InuYasha cleared his throat and spoke "I think we should plan out exactly what will be said to the King. When we all show up he's going to want information on who we are very fast. Princess, you're the one who's going to have to start. He's your father and will listen to what you say before he will listen to any of us."

Everyone nodded in agreement and the time flew as they planned the most efficient opening lines for the princess.

As the group headed for the door InuYasha almost chuckled as Yasha leaned close to his princess taking a deep breath, his counterpart he reasoned was calmed by his princess's scent just as he was by his mate's. Deciding calmness was a good idea; InuYasha put his arm around Kagome's waist and leaned in for a good calming sniff.

As the doors to the main corridor opened the princess and Yasha started out followed closely by Kagome and InuYasha with Kaede bringing up the rear.

The guards outside the doors started, where had these two strangers come from and why did they look so much like the princess and her little hanyou? Kaede shot the guards a warning looks and shook her head. They knew better than to cross the princess, she was almost as dangerous as her father the King.

The group strode purposefully down the richly appointed hallway, never pausing never looking at any of the courtiers who stared in shock and wonder and the odd quartet. Within a few short minuets they had reached the great doors to the King's private study. The guards having been briefed that the royal princess had an audience barely glanced at her odd entourage allowing the group to enter unchallenged.

Quickly crossing the large outer waiting room the group headed towards the final guarded door to the King's private study.

The princess steeled herself, these guards would not be so easy to get past, not with a full grown Inu hanyou sporting a sword. Before the group had even come to a halt, the princess started talking "I am here for my scheduled audience with the King, let us pass."

"I beg forgiveness princess; I was not informed that there would be others in attendance. They may not pass." was one of the guard's stiff reply.

The princess was prepared for this" Very well, have someone inform his majesty that I am here and that I have guests who must accompany me. If they are denied admittance then I will return to my rooms."

As one of the guards entered the study the little princess turned towards Kagome and InuYasha explaining "I rarely ask for an audience with father, he will be curious and we will all get in – I hope."

The words were barely out of her lips when the doors to the study were flung open by the imposing figure of the King himself. "Since when do you make demands of the King, young lady!" the King began only to stop at the sight of his daughter's grown double. As the King's eyes traveled to InuYasha the King continued "Kagome what have you been up to!"

"Papa I haven't been up to anything and this is serious. We have to come in and talk to you. Miko Kagome and InuYasha need your help!" was the princess's earnest reply.

Still somewhat stunned the King allowed the group to enter his study unchallenged. Once within the confines of his inner sanctum, however, the King was determined to regain control of this very odd situation (once he found out exactly what this situation was!).

Seating himself behind his imposing desk he looked over the group assembled before him. His daughter, of course, stood defiantly at the forefront hands on her hips, looking quite impatient. Yasha, ever mindful of proper behavior, was kneeling with his head lowered next to his mistress. This left the two strangers, the one called the Miko Kagome had the same dark hair, brown eyes and lovely face as his daughter, this was the woman that little Kagome could grow into. More startling, however, was the one called InuYasha, he was a perfect adult version of little Yasha. The same mane of silver hair topped with perfect dog ears, claws, fangs, golden eyes, and the same shaped face. The King had no doubt that InuYasha was exactly what Yasha would grow into.

Nodding his head the King addressed his daughter "Alright Kagome, go ahead and tell me exactly what's going on."

Taking a deep breath the princess began to recount the events that began the previous afternoon, starting with the appearance of Kagome and InuYasha and proceeding through their revelation of their quest and the discoveries they made upon their examination of the prophecy scrolls. She also made sure to stress the fact that Yasha had verified that the miko Kagome and InuYasha shared their exact scent; they were not imitations, they were true adult versions of Yasha and herself. As the little princess completed her recap of events she concluded with the group's decision that only the King and his scholars could ensure the proper execution of the prophecy stressing that the miko Kagome and InuYasha only wished to return to their own world in peace.

As his daughter's recitation came to an end the King seemed lost in thought. After what seemed like an eternity he turned to the adult Kagome and requested to see the prophecy scroll.

Timidly advancing to the grand desk, Kagome gently placed the scroll down. Just to be on the safe side, it had been decided that the small package with the return information would remain hidden in the princess's rooms.

Not even looking at the scroll the King studied Kagome "So you say you are a miko, yet you have a hanyou lover?"

Determined to keep her temper in control Kagome replied "No your majesty, I am a miko with a hanyou husband. If you would like a demonstration I can show you that I still possess all of my spiritual powers" Just to reinforce her statement, Kagome allowed herself to glow, just a bit – for emphasis.

Suppressing a smile, the King realized that this adult Kagome possessed the same temper and determination as his own daughter. She also seemed to possess significant spiritual power despite being wed to a hanyou. After assuring himself that none of his amusement would be revealed in his voice the King replied "I am sure a full demonstration would be of great interest young miko, perhaps at a later time."

Then addressing InuYasha the King continued "So, you have nothing to say hanyou?"

Snorting InuYasha replied "You figure out what we're supposed to go after and I'll make sure we get it and don't worry, I have no intention of letting it fall into the wrong hands. I'll protect your Kagome the same as mine. I'm as good a bodyguard as the kid is, only I have almost 200 years more experience."

Nodding his acceptance of InuYasha's claims, the King proceeded to unroll the prophecy scroll. As he read the opening lines he silently cursed, indeed it looked like his daughter and Yasha would be forced to take part in this quest. His daughter was also correct in her assessment that the best of his scholars, human and youkai, would be need to decipher the true meaning of the confusing prophecy and they would also be need to plot out the correct way to proceed with the implied quest.

Looking up at the group he sighed "My daughter, I will assemble the greatest of the royal scholars immediately. You have my permission to see to the comfort of our guests."

Taking this as their dismissal the princess thanked the King and rounding up the still irritated miko and her mate headed out the door, followed by Yasha and the ever faithful Kaede.

The group was quiet as they headed back to the princess's quarters, once again ignoring the stares and whispers of the various courtiers they passed.

As they once again entered the familiarity of the princess's quarters she inquired of her counterpart "Now that you are guests do you want to stay here with us or would you like your own quarters? I could get you proper guest rooms, but they would not be very close to these, there are also a few rooms down the hall that aren't currently occupied, they're not fancy, just simple sleeping quarters. It's up to you, but I would feel better if you two were not too far from us."

Kagome turned to InuYasha and inquired "Is it OK with you if we take one of the simple sleeping rooms down the hall? I agree that we shouldn't be too far apart." She didn't have to add that she wanted to sleep with her hanyou and not with her 10 year old double.

As InuYasha nodded his agreement, Kagome turned to the princess and added "You two better stay out of any secret passages that run past our room. InuYasha will know if you're there and quest or not I won't be responsible for what he would do to you if he caught you spying on us!"

The little princess laughed and replied "Don't worry; we would never spy on friends – or on someone who can hear as well as InuYasha!" Then turning to her faithful servant she continued "Kaede go and have one of the rooms made up for miko Kagome and InuYasha."

After Kaede left, the little princess led the group out to the terrace commenting "I think we should insist on being actively involved with the scholar's work on the prophecy, so we might as well relax while we still can."

As they emerged into the sun the princess settled herself on one of the low cushioned divans which lined the out edge of the large terrace. The divans were so low that when Yasha settled on the floor next to his princess she was able to pull his unresisting head onto her lap so she could gently pet his soft furry ears.

Thinking the princess had created a perfect setup for Inu hanyou ear rubbing Kagome quickly found her own divan, pulling InuYasha down to lay with his head on her lap. As soon as Kagome began to stroke InuYasha's soft ears she glanced at the princess and smiled, little Yasha was fast asleep.

Noticing the miko's gaze the little princess smiled and whispered "He doesn't sleep much, but I think he feels pretty safe with InuYasha here."

As Kagome readied herself for bed she reflected that the day had passed surprisingly fast. Not knowing how long it would take to unravel the meaning behind the prophecy, everyone seemed determined to relax as much as possible. They might have to start their quest at any time; there was no way to know how long the scholars would be at their task.

Kagome smiled as two clawed hands snaked around her body pulling at her clothes. Within moments she was stripped as bare as her mate and spun around to be held close in the arms of her lover. A mischievous grin on her face Kagome pulled out of InuYasha's embrace before he could even kiss her.

As Kagome backed onto the bed she silently motioned for InuYasha to stay where he was. Confused the hanyou stopped and stood at the foot of the bed. Kagome smirked, she had spent the better part of three years yearning for a certain hanyou and had not let any boy near her, but that did not stop the frustrated girl from seeking a bit of personal pleasure. A great deal of internet porn had taught Kagome quite a few tricks and she decided it was time to share some of them with her mate.

Spreading her legs wide Kagome began to gently touch herself all the while keeping an eye on her mesmerized mate. Settling back on the bed Kagome decided it was time to start the show. She started slow, fingers gently stroking her breasts gradually increasing the pressure until she began to rub and pinch her nipples. Then very slowly she lowered one hand to start a gentle exploration of her folds.

Noticing how InuYasha was fixated on her every movement Kagome decided it was time to up the anti. Lowering her other hand she spread herself so InuYasha would be able to see everything she was doing to herself. Soon Kagome began to rub and pinch herself, moaning and writhing, and then when she thought neither she nor her mate would be able to last much longer it was time to up the stakes once more. Very slowly, so InuYasha would be able to follow each movement, Kagome carefully inserted one finger into herself; she had forgotten how much she enjoyed this particular action. Pumping slowly into herself Kagome realized that she had been stretched considerably by InuYasha's immense size. One finger would no longer do and soon a second and then a third was added. Kagome then began to pump herself vigorously moaning and writhing as provocatively as she could. As she pumped and stroked herself, Kagome kept an eye on InuYasha and his condition. The hanyou was so hard that he looked like he might cum without ever being touched.

Finally when she thought her mate was ready to explode, Kagome pulled out her fingers and offered them out to InuYasha. The near deranged hanyou needed no prompting and within seconds had climbed on the bed and began to suck on the offered digits. Only satisfied for a few moments with the fingers he had been offered, InuYasha repositioned himself and within moments had slammed himself into his mate's more than willing body.

Immediately Kagome's over stimulated body began to throb with one overwhelming orgasm after another. As Kagome's channel began to clamp down on his overextended organ InuYasha came with such force that the ecstatic hanyou was forced to hold on to Kagome's hips in order to stay fully inserted.

Determined to remain within his mate, InuYasha bent over to kiss and lick at Kagome's breasts, slowly traveling up until he reached his goal and he began to nip and kiss the pouting lips that tempted him.

Finally tiring of his position, InuYasha pulled Kagome over so he could lie on his side holding his mate close.

The couple spent a considerable portion of the night making love, finally drifting off to sleep soundly until Kaede's knock on their door announcing breakfast, woke them.

Carrying their clothes and wearing dressing gowns that had bent lent to them, Kagome and InuYasha headed back to the princess's quarters to use her bath. Mindful of the children the couple kept to just washing themselves in the luxurious tub.

Once dressed the group gathered for breakfast where the princess announced that word had been sent that the first of the scholars would soon be arriving.

Determined to be part of the scholar's work, the group soon headed towards the castle's main receiving hall.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

A very short chapter, hope you don't mind!

**Chapter 5 – The scholars**

As the foursome plus Kaede made their way to the great receiving hall the Princess explained "Father decided that all official state scholars have to live within a day's travel from the palace. In grandfather's time some scholars lived in such remote area's that they were utterly useless for any practical work, but they still wanted to be supported by the King. Since they all live so near father was able sent royal escorts to fetch them, so all of them should be arriving at just about the same time."

As the group took their place at the far end of the magnificent hall, the princess continued "Also as important as the deciphering of the prophecy is, father will not personally receive the scholars until later in the day. He feels it's better to make overeducated fellows like these wait on him, they're probably smarter than him, so they have to be reminded that the King holds all the power!"

As the princess finished her explanation there was a flurry of activity at other end of the hall. The scholars were coming.

The first two scholars arrived together and could not have been more dissimilar. First announced was Toshio, who was tall and elegant, dressed in fine silks and brocades. The scholar flashed a friendly smile and bowed most elegantly as he approached the princess and her companions. The other scholar was announced as Hisoka, short and plain dressed in simple robes of a non-descript brown; the scholar quietly approached the princess and gave a small awkward bow.

Toshio's response to the smaller scholar's approach was to jovially proclaim "So we are the first to arrive! All I was told was that there was a great mystery to solve which could impact the very future of our great kingdom!" Then addressing the little princess with another sweeping bow he continued "Your Highness, rest assured that I will unravel every secret, nothing will remain hidden from my great intellect!"

As the princess smothered a laugh at the ever so confident scholar, she turned to Hisoka, who still stood quietly eyes respectfully lowered and inquired "Scholar Hisoka, we have not heard from you, what is your opinion?"

The scholar Hisoka seemed to ponder his words carefully and then quietly commented "Your Highness, I do not know what mystery we are to unravel, but I will do my very best to be of assistance to his majesty and yourself. This is all I can guarantee at this time."

Just as Hisoka had finished there was a commotion at the door as Mikio, a giant of a man was announced. Dressed more like a woodsman than scholar, the huge man strode confidently towards the princess, as his friendly eyes took in the entire group he smiled and then addressed the princess. "Hello little princess, I have heard from your father that there is work to be done, so don't you worry, I'll make sure these little fellows give you their best!" As he spoke, the huge man grabbed the two unsuspecting smaller scholars, one in each arm, and gave them a big rough squeeze.

As Mikio released the two slightly stunned scholars, InuYasha had to suppress a smirk of admiration. First off, this fellow was the biggest human he had ever encountered, if his nose had not told him otherwise InuYasha would have suspected the man of being part bear youkai. Secondly, InuYasha could tell this fellow had no fear of hard work; he would keep the other scholars to their task.

Before the princess could reply to the enormous scholar, a hush settled over the great hall as the scholar Tetsuya was announced. Tall, thin, with long white hair and an even longer white beard the scholar was dressed in a long grey robe and walked with the aid of a tall unadorned staff. The most unusual aspects of Tetsuya's appearance, however, were his startling round blue eyes and pale white skin.

As he approached, the other scholars all bowed in respect, then much to everyone's surprise the little princess followed suite respectfully lowering her head. As the princess lowered her head, Yasha sank to his knees head bowed respectfully. Kagome, InuYasha and Kaede all followed with deep bows of respect. InuYasha and Kagome might not know who this odd looking old man was, but wisdom radiated from his strong spiritual aura.

Addressing the princess Tetsuya commented "What an interesting group you have assembled little one. I do believe this task just might be rather interesting."

Before the princess could reply to the great scholar InuYasha let out a yelp slapping himself on the neck. Extracting a tiny object pinched between his claws he exclaimed "Damn it, another Myouga! Why the hell did you bite me, there's plenty other people here to go after"

Jumping out of InuYasha's grip and landing on the now outstretched palm of Tetsuya, the flea explained "Please forgive me I was trying to determine if you were truly identical to Master Yasha." Then turning to address the great scholar the flea continued "This hanyou tastes exactly like my Master Yasha – only much older – the young always taste better than the ol..."

Before the tiny youkai could finish his thought Yasha jumped up and grabbed the flea and in a low dangerous voice very slowly growled "I told you to never call me that. If I ever hear you call me that again I will end your miserable life – do you understand me! I'm a slave and no one's master."

Seemingly unconcerned Myouga once again wriggled free and escaped to the palm of the elderly scholar replying "Whether you are free or slave is of no concern to me, I gave an oath to your great father before you were born that I would be your faithful retainer till the end of my life and I have no intention of breaking that oath. It's bad enough that I consented to the silly shortening of your proper name – a name I might add that your great father himself gave you." Then turning towards InuYasha the flea continued "So what do you call yourself hanyou?"

"My name is InuYasha and if the kid wants you to call him Yasha it's your duty to do so and by the way if you're such a faithful retainer, why haven't you been here to serve your master? Or are you as big a coward as my Myouga? No need to answer, if you're a Myouga, it's a given that you have to be a coward. What I don't understand is how someone with so much spiritual power, like the old scholar here, can even put up with your presence."

Tetsuya's eyes seemed to sparkle with delight as he replied "Ha, Ha, hanyou well said, actually you're quite right, Myouga is one of the greatest cowards I have ever encountered, but it is his very cowardice that has allowed him to also become one of the oldest youkai I have ever known. The little fellow is a wealth of obscure information that often comes in very handy."

As the great scholar finished speaking the princess realized that since her father was not present, the duty of hostess fell to her. Commanding servants to show the four scholars (plus Myouga) to their quarters the princess added that she would send word to her father that all had arrived safely and that they would be sent for at the King's convenience.

The afternoon progressed and the foursome decided to have a picnic lunch in the princess's private garden. As InuYasha swallowed a huge bite from a savory pasty he finally decided to give voice to a question that he had wanted to ask all morning. Turning to the little princess and Yasha he asked "I've never seen a human who looked like Tetsuya before, his eyes and skin color, do you know why he looks like that?"

The princess laughed and replied "Tetsuya came many years ago from a distant land, he's told us that everyone has pale skin, many have yellow hair, and while many have brown eyes most have blue, grey, or even green eyes, and that's humans, not youkai! In fact his real name is not Tetsuya, but he's been in our land so long that I'm not even sure what his real name is."

Kagome, realizing that InuYasha had never seen a European before interjected "InuYasha lots of people in our world look like Tetsuya, but Japan is pretty far from their lands, that's why you never saw any before. Anyway lots of youkai look different, Shippo has red hair and green eyes and you don't think anything's odd about that."

InuYasha had to agree "I guess I'm not used to human's looking different that's all. With youkai you never know what's going to happen, especially if two different types of youkai mate. You remember the thunder brothers; I found out later that the better looking brother looked a lot like his father and that the bald one looked just like his mother. Hell, look at me, father may have been able to look sort of like a person, but he wasn't one, he was really a huge dog, but all I ended up with are dog ears, the rest of me looks mostly like father in his human like form – or so my Myouga told me."

At InuYasha's last statement Yasha's ears perked up and he commented "My Myouga told me the same thing, that I look a lot like my father in his human form, except I don't have any demon markings."

For once considering his words with great care InuYasha replied "Um, kid now that your Myouga is here, I think we may want to talk to him about some stuff, the reason you don't have demon markings and about your demon blood. I didn't learn about this stuff till just about four years ago and it almost cost me my life and more importantly the lives of my friends. I don't want you to get into the same mess I did."

Noting the confused look Yasha and the princess were giving him; InuYasha continued "Father was so powerful that I inherited stronger demon blood than most full blooded youkai. Unfortunately, a half human body can't control such strong blood so my father had Tessaiga forged from one of his fangs. In addition to being a weapon of great power it also acts as a seal on my youkai blood. If your father had a Tessaiga made for you and hid it in the same place as mine, you'll be safe from your youkai blood till you're big enough to use it - and before you say that your big enough to use a sword, Tessaiga is a handful, you really have to be fully grown to hang on to it. Like I said, when we have a chance, we should talk to your Myouga."

Before Yasha could ask for more information Kaede entered the garden to let everyone know that the King had summoned them and all of the scholars to his study.


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks so much to those who are taking their time to read my story, it really means a lot to me!

Authors note: This is a little late, but I hope you have noticed that I only use Kagome to refer to the adult Kagome we all know from the Manga & cartoons. Little Kagome will always be either just the princess or the little princess. I did this just to try and keep readers from being too confused. InuYasha and Yasha are easy to tell apart. Also I always refer to the King as the King as no one would ever use his name in regular conversation.

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 6 – The Prophecy

The King, and all of the scholars, plus Myouga, were seated and apparently waiting when the princess, Yasha, Kagome and InuYasha arrived. Apparently the King had decided not to begin the briefing until all were in attendance.

Kagome, InuYasha and the princess all found seats near each other while Yasha curled up at his princess's feet. As soon as all were seated the King began by asking his daughter to recount all of events that had transpired starting with the arrival of Kagome and InuYasha. The princess instead requested that Kagome start, explaining that the prophecy scrolls did not originate in their own world and that the miko Kagome and InuYasha were the ones originally set on the quest.

Kagome began to recount InuYasha and her encounter with the O-Harai-Ya ending with their translocation to the princess's garden. Her narrative was occasionally interrupted by Toshio who would request clarifications. He seemed to want information on every aspect of the story including all of the information the couple had on the old O-Yarai-Ya and what she has said.

As soon as Kagome reached the point in her narrative where InuYasha and she had arrived in the garden, the princess joined in. Then together Kagome and the princess completed updating the scholars in all that had happened, ending with their realization that they would need a great deal of help in deciphering the prophecy scroll.

When the girls had finished their update the King turned his attention to the four scholars and said "The first task I am setting you is to verify that we have interpreted the opening lines of the prophecy correctly. Needless to say I must know if my daughter truly must be a party to this quest."

As soon as the King paused the princess interjected "I would also like to remind all of you that we have looked over most of the prophecy. While we do not fully understand it, we will know if you are trying to twist the interpretation to please the King or suit your own hidden agendas. We are no fools and you'd best remember that."

Retaking control the King thanked everyone and indicated that his immense library would be their base of operations.

Taking this as a dismissal the entire group left to begin work.

Once alone, the King indulged himself in a smile of admiration for his child. She certainly did not speak or act like the small child she really was. If his daughter had been born a boy there would be no question of sending him on a quest such as this. It was the perfect proving ground for a future ruler. The question was what if his little girl proved herself to be as strong as a son would have been. Would his smart, ruthless daughter ever accept a prince as husband to rule in her stead or would she simply have her loyal hanyou shred any possible suitor who came near her? That thought lead the King to the unpleasant realization that this entire quest was throwing his child in with the worst possible role models. The miko Kagome and InuYasha had married, not only had they married, but the miko had kept all of her spiritual powers! The King shuddered, if a miko could mate with a hanyou and keep her powers, what was to keep a princess from thinking she could mate with a hanyou and keep her throne? They tried not to let him know how close they were to each other, but he had seen his child sit for hours on end gently stroking the hanyou's furry ears as he lay with his head in her lap. The fact that he was half demon most certainly did not bother her. On the other hand his child would not even be alive if it were not for Yasha; he had saved her life on more than one occasion.

If only the Queen had lived, she would have known how to handle this situation. Sighing, the King resigned himself. The children were still quite young, he had time to figure out what to do and who knew perhaps this quest would solve all of his problems.

Over in the library the scholars were setting up shop. There was a great deal of arguing going on as to who would be the first to get to study the prophecy scroll. In the end it was the elder Kagome who came up with the best solution. First they would take turns reading out loud the entire scroll. Then each scholar would select a portion to work on. If two scholars wished to work on the same passage, they would both have to copy it. No single person would be able to monopolize the precious scroll.

Realizing that they had four more than willing helpers, all who could read and write, the scholars utilized the girls and hanyous as research assistants. Before long the scholars realized that the two girls had the patience to read long involved documents that were thought to contain clues. The two hanyou however, were far too impatient for such a task, they excelled in tracking down ancient scrolls hidden in the vast library. Given a vague idea as to what text the scholars wanted, the two hanyou enjoyed the hunt for the hidden documents, but both lacked the patience to thoroughly read the text through once it was found.

Each member of the foursome quickly attached themselves to a particular scholar. Kagome preferred to work with Tetsuya, while she respected the old man's immense spiritual power and intellect, it was his sweet grandfatherly nature she responded to. The princess on the other hand preferred to work with Toshio, self confident and courtly the two worked together well. Unassuming Yasha gravitated naturally to the shy and quiet Hisoka, the two working so unobtrusively that the others often forgot that they were even in the library. This was not the case for InuYasha and Mikio, the hanyou and huge human were loud and boisterous; the others were soon amazed that despite their often crude behavior the two managed to accomplish brilliant work.

Tetsuya also proved correct in his appraisal of Myouga's worth. The tiny youkai was a wealth of information. During his long life Myouga had amassed not just an astonishing amount of historical information, but his knowledge of matters mystical was staggering. Many ancient scrolls were unearthed at his recommendation that contained valuable clues or information.

However, when it came to divulging information about Yasha, the tiny flea youkai was less forthcoming. Each time InuYasha and his younger counterpart would try and talk to Myouga about whether Yasha's father had left him a Tessaiga the flea would bounce away muttering that Yasha was much too young and that the less he knew the safer he was.

After several failed attempts to talk to the flea Yasha finally took InuYasha aside stating "InuYasha, you yourself told me that I would not be able to weld Tessaiga till I was fully grown, so why drive Myouga crazy with questions. The fact that Myouga is getting this upset means that there must be a Tessaiga out there for me. Unlike you, I'm already ahead of the game, I know about Tessaaiga and its powers; if Sesshomaru tries to steal it I'll be prepared. That's enough for now, let's just drop it. We need the little coward to help with the prophecy and if we push much harder he'll just run off."

InuYasha nodded his agreement, musing that his younger version was much calmer and more level headed than he was. He supposed being a slave Yasha had to consider his words and actions carefully. InuYasha also realized that these were traits he never had to develop growing up as he did in virtual social isolation.

Slowly as the days progressed, tiny portions of the prophecy were untangled. Vague confusing passages were slowly interpreted and each day a little more of the text made sense.

After a few days the foursome had established something of a routine. Each morning Kagome and InuYasha would come to the princess's rooms to use her luxurious bath. Then they would all have breakfast together and head off to the library. Lunch was usually hurried and all four would work until early evening. The group would finally have dinner together back in the princess's rooms, where they could discuss the progress that had been made during the day.

It only took a few days for the group to realize that more and more of the text seemed to be referring specifically to them. They realized that just as the O-Haria-Ya had said, they were the fulfillment of the prophecy; no one else would be able to retrieve the mysterious relic.

As more of the text was interpreted, however, one fact remained hidden. No one had been able to figure out just what the relic looked like. There was no name and no description to be found, the only clue was that the relic would make itself known to the proper person. The other item mentioned over and over was the crown of destiny. The crown did not seem to be a power talisman like the relic but more of a receptacle and focusing tool for already existing power. What the crown had to do with the relic was still unclear.

Ten days had passed when the King once again summoned everyone to his study. Once the group was assembled the King demanded a full briefing on all progress that had been made.

Tetsuya was selected to present their findings to the monarch and quietly began "Your Majesty we have made some progress, we have not completed deciphering the prophecy and I doubt we ever will. In fact I do not think we are meant to unravel the complete text, much of it does not seem to be pertinent to the quest at hand. What I can tell you is that your daughter, Yasha, the miko Kagome and InuYasha must all undertake this quest together. We also believe the princess was correct in regards to the land to the north, we agree that they must travel to the lands her mother the Queen brought to your kingdom. There is also a real possibility that there are two quests which must be fulfilled at the same time, one to retrieve the lost relic and the other to retrieve the crown of destiny."

At this revelation the King interrupted "I think I may have heard of the crown of destiny from the late Queen. Let me think a moment, she once mentioned – this would have been when we were still courting – that her ancestors were given rule of their lands by the power of a crown. At this moment I cannot recall if she called it a crown of destiny, but I do know their family's power was linked to a crown and that it was somehow lost long ago."

Mikio boisterous as ever commented "Well that seems to confirm what we all have been thinking, though none of us dared say. This is a double quest, one for the miko Kagome and InuYasha to recover the relic and return to their own world, the other for the princess and Yasha to recover the crown of destiny."

At Mikio's inclusion of Yasha in the princess's part of the quest the King's gaze fixed upon the hanyou, who as usual, sat quietly at his mistress's feet.

Noting the King's gaze Mikio continued "Yasha is noble born; this crown may be his destiny as much as the princess's. We must allow things to transpire as they were meant to, as much as one might wish to - one cannot alter destiny your Majesty."

The King nodded his understanding and dismissed the group with a request to inform him as soon as any new important discoveries were made.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Warning – Lemons (adult contnent)!**

Chapter 7 – An afternoon off

After so many days of nonstop hard work everyone decided to take the rest of the afternoon off and start fresh the next morning.

As the foursome settled themselves on the terrace the princess commented "I don't know about the rest of you, but I have this overwhelming feeling that we are going to have to start out on this quest with the prophecy only partly unraveled. In fact I think we will be starting out very soon. I don't know why, I just have this gut feeling."

The other three all nodded in agreement and Kagome added "I totally agree with you, InuYasha and I have been through this sort of thing before and you really can't pin everything down, whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. I don't know why but that's just the way it is."

Picking up where Kagome had left off Yasha interjected "My princess I think it would be wise for us to pack and prepare so we can start at a moments notice." Then glancing at InuYasha added "It will be the new moon in two night's time and we may have to start out any time after that."

The princess nodded adding "Kagome, I've taken the liberty of ordering some extra clothes for you and I will have Kaede talk to the cook about journey provisions." Then thinking for a moment the princess continued "I don't know what you two want to do for the rest of the afternoon, but I think Yasha and I should go see the slave master. He'll be worried if we just leave without saying goodbye." Noticing the very confused looks Kagome and InuYasha were giving her she added "Yasha was pretty much raised by the slave master Yasushi and his wife Hiromi, we normally go to visit every week or so, do you want to come along? Hiromi is a great cook and she always has something special for us."

InuYasha had to smother a laugh; if Kagome had had ears like his they would have perked up with curiosity so he replied "Sure we'll come." InuYasha did not want to admit it, but he too was curious about Yasha's upbringing.

Kagome and InuYasha held hands as they followed the princess and Yasha towards the slave master's home. As they passed from the castle proper towards the courtyards that housed the slave's quarters Yasha positioned himself slightly further behind his princess than normal and Kagome noticed how Yasha's hand now rested on the hilt of his sword.

Surprisingly, there were not many slaves visible despite the fact that the large courtyard was surrounded by most of the slave's quarters. Kagome surmised that the majority of the palace's slaves must be working at this time of day. She was also surprised at how few guards seemed to be present. Apparently these slaves were not seen as much of a security threat.

Not quite knowing what to expect, the couple were pleasantly surprised to see that they were approaching a small, but comfortable looking, two story home surrounded by a small flower bed.

As the group drew near the home, a neatly dressed attractive middle aged woman, her neck circled by a slave collar, emerged shaking out a small tablecloth. Spotting the princess and Yasha she smiled and curtsied to the princess then embraced Yasha giving him a kiss on the top of his head. Turning back towards the little princess the woman smiled and spoke in a warm voice "I am so glad you came, we have heard all sorts of rumors about your visitors and a quest of some sort. Why don't you all come in, I just happen to have some fresh backed sweets in the kitchen."

Entering the small home and passing through a small but nicely appointed sitting room they entered the large cheery kitchen.

After everyone was seated with a cup of tea, and a large plate of cookies and sweets was placed on the table, the woman who was indeed the slave mater's wife Hiromi turned towards Kagome and InuYasha and said "So, they say you are Yasha and our princess as they will be in the future."

Glancing at her companions Kagome decided to answer "InuYasha and I come from a parallel world, it's almost like this one, but not quite the same and yes, I'm about 8 years older than the princess, and InuYasha is about 200."

Noticing the startled look on Hiromi's face InuYasha added "I'm fairly sure Yasha will look like me when he's about 18 or so. After my mother died everyone, human and youkai was trying to kill me so I had to hide in the forest till I was big enough to fight back, the humans weren't that big of a threat, but there were also lots of youkai after me. Anyway, there aren't many mirrors in a forest so I don't really know what I looked like when I was Yasha's age."

Hiromi, the princess and even Yasha seemed stunned by InuYasha's casual admission. None of them could imagine such a lonely friendless childhood.

Finally Hiromi broke the silence "Oh InuYasha, I'm so sorry. I just can't imagine people turning against you when you were so small. Yasushi and I could never have children, and when he brought little Yasha home he was so adorable I asked if we could keep him with us here, he's been like a son to both of us."

Confused Kagome timidly asked "Hiromi, I noticed you wear a slave collar, but you're Yasushi's wife?"

Smiling Hiromi replied "Yes I'm a slave and belong to the royal family. Yasushi and I fell in love, but Yasushi did not want to take me as a slave, but as a wife. He asked permission of the King and as a loyal retainer he was allowed to marry me. It's actually a very smart move on the King's part. Yasushi can never leave his job here at the palace as I would not be allowed to go with him. Other than that, I am accorded all the rights of a wife."

Just then Yasushi entered the kitchen and after giving his wife a peck on the cheek settled down at the table after getting himself a cup of tea.

After Hiromi filled her husband in on the information she had just been given he turned towards the princess and asked "So what's with this quest we've been hearing about? Is it true that your highness and Yasha are part of all of this and will you also be going on this quest?"

As usual the princess spoke for both Yasha and herself "Yes, the prophecy seems to be very clear on the point that all four of us must travel together on the quest. It also seems that while the miko Kagome and InuYasha must find a relic of great power so they can return to their home, Yasha and I must find something called the crown of destiny. So far no one has been able to figure out if it's my crown or Yasha's."

Yasushi nodded and stated "Well with both Yasha and InuYasha I don't see how this quest can fail. Still, I want all of you to get back here safely."

Soon the conversation turned to more mundane matters ending with the princess insisting that Yasha show Kagome and InuYasha his old room, and more importantly its view.

Yasha led the princess, Kagome and InuYasha up the small flight of stairs to a cozy attic room. The small room was simply but comfortably furnished with a child size bed and a clothes chest, a small shelf held toys and even a few books. As InuYasha looked at the tiny room he realized that he would have given almost anything to have this sort of security after his mother had died. Yasha might be a slave, but he was loved and had a home.

Joining the others at the small attic window, InuYasha realized that to someone with the eyesight of a hanyou or youkai, the room had a very good view over the courtyard wall into the princess's private garden.

Smirking, the princess turned and stated "After Yasha saved me for the first time I wondered why it seemed like he knew so much about me. I didn't figure that out till I saw this view. He had been watching me ever since he was brought to the palace." Noticing that Yasha was now blushing she quickly added "Of course Yasha was six and I was four so I don't really think he started out with any ulterior motives."

As the group prepared to leave the slave master's home both Yasushi and Hiromi hugged Yasha, Yasushi then placed his hands on Yasha's shoulders and said "Yasha you take good care of our princess and I want you both back here safe and sound". Then turning a shrewd eye towards Kagome and InuYasha, Yasushi added "and you two take care of both of them. Neither of them has ever really been out there – in the real world. Yasha may be a great fighter, but in reality he's been almost as sheltered as our princess. You make sure they both are returned to us – or you'll have me to deal with."

Kagome glanced at InuYasha sure he was going to make some rude remark, but she was stunned when InuYasha merely bowed and replied "Don't worry I won't let anything happen to them. We'll be back before you know it".

Kagome took InuYasha's hand as they followed the children back towards the palace proper. Curious Kagome ventured to ask "InuYasha you were really respectful to Yasushi back there. That was very nice, but what happened? You'd normally say something rude."

InuYasha actually bit his lip before replying "I don't know, it's just they took him in and took care of him. They really don't seem to care that he's a hanyou. Other than my mother you're the only person who truly doesn't care what I am. Even Miroku and Sango, they're good friends, but they never forget what I am, I can see it in their eyes. So I guess I didn't want to say something stupid to people like them."

Kagome didn't know how to reply to such a bearing of InuYasha's soul other than to put her arm around her hanyou and snuggle close as they walked.

Furtively glancing up at her mate Kagome contemplated InuYasha's statement. All the time they were hunting for jewel shards and fighting Naraku none of them ever really considered the implications of InuYasha's upbringing. How many times had she sat him for his crude manners, or total lack of social graces, never once considering the fact that he had raised himself in near isolation? Kagome also mused that during their three year separation InuYasha had really tried to improve his manners, though he still had a rather rude vocabulary, his table manners had definitely improved. All in all it was truly a tribute to InuYasha's sheer determination that he had managed to grow into a man of honor when he easily could have given in to despair.

Kagome privately smiled, her sweet hanyou deserved an extra special evening especially considering that they might not have many more nights in their comfortable little bedroom. Once they started on their quest romance would definitely be out of the question, since they would be traveling with children.

As the foursome entered the princess's rooms they were greeted by Kaede who had outdone herself in providing an extra special dinner. By the time they had eaten and filled Kaede in on all that had been going on it was rather late and Kagome and InuYasha headed off to their room.

As Kagome firmly shut and locked the door to their bedroom she smiled to herself. Spinning around to face her hanyou Kagome quickly began to strip InuYasha, not stopping till he was totally bare. Not bothering to remove her own clothes Kagome sank to her knees and quickly engulfed InuYasha's already semi erect manhood. Surprised InuYasha was immediately overcome with the most wonderful sensations as Kagome licked, nipped, and sucked on his sensitive member. Eventually the hanyou was able to gain a small measure of control and managed to stutter "Oh Gome you don't have to do this."

Momentarily stopping her pleasurable ministration Kagome replied "But I want to InuYasha, I want to give you as much pleasure as you give me. Let me make you feel good my beautiful hanyou."

Kagome immediately resumed her ministrations bobbing her head as she sucked on InuYasha's firm flesh. When she felt her hanyou would not be able to take much more she began to gently squeeze his testicles sending InuYasha over the edge. As InuYasha's orgasm exploded Kagome greedily began to suck and swallow. She wanted to make sure that her hanyou realized that she loved and wanted every last bit of him.

As Kagome finally pulled back from InuYasha she rested on her heels smiling as she looked up at her slightly dazed hanyou. Within a few seconds the dazed look left InuYasha's eyes and he smirked at his still fully dressed mate.

As InuYasha reached out to pull his mate up Kagome scooted back from him and stood up, quickly stripping herself. Still hard, an amused InuYasha tried to reach out for the enticing body in front of him as Kagome continued to back away towards the bed. InuYasha followed Kagome onto the bed and was surprised when Kagome immediately pushed him flat on his back. Kagome then quickly threw herself onto the confused hanyou who within moments was again rendered unable to think as Kagome lowered herself onto InuYasha's still rock hard erection.

InuYasha moaned as Kagome relentlessly rode his cock. Somehow Kagome had positioned her legs so it was virtually impossible for InuYasha to thrust into the delicious tight heat surrounding him. Kagome also managed to continually change her angle as she lifted and slammed herself onto InuYasha bringing herself quickly to a massive orgasm. As InuYasha felt Kagome's overwhelming orgasm constrict around him he found it impossible to hold back. Frustrated with his inability to thrust as he wanted to, InuYasha howled as he came. Kagome realized she was screaming out for InuYasha to cum harder, yelling for more – begging to be filled till she couldn't hold any more.

InuYasha gathered Kagome in his arms as she collapsed onto his chest. Kagome tucked her face into the crook of her hanyou's neck and rested knowing that InuYasha would soon be hard again; his youkai blood would not be satisfied until he had taken her as an Inu.

After a few minutes rest Kagome rolled off on InuYasha and positioned herself on all fours. Glancing over at the once again hard hanyou she smiled and was rewarded when she felt InuYasha drape himself over her back, his cock sliding firmly into her as he gently held her neck in his fangs. Pumping fast and hard InuYasha always managed to hit an especially sensitive spot when they were in this position and he was rewarded with Kagome's incoherent howls of pleasure. Knowing that Kagome could not withstand his furious pace for long InuYasha began to pinch and flick Kagome's clit bringing her to a rapid and intense orgasm which immediately brought about his own. Riding out their last spasms of pleasure InuYasha finally rolled the two of them onto their sides.

Still buried deep inside his mate, InuYasha held Kagome close in his arms. As Kagome drifted off to sleep she smiled, the firm flesh filling her felt so good she sometimes wished she could stay like this forever.

InuYasha took a little longer to drift off loving the way he felt inside Kagome. It was his youkai half, however, that was the happiest; as long as he was tied inu style to his mate no one else could try to claim or impregnate her. That Kagome was not fertile at the moment was of no consequence to InuYasha's youkai instincts, the more time he spent tied to his mate the better the odds.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Authors Note: Hi and thank you to everyone who is still reading - would love to get some reviews to see how you like the story!

Looking back at this chapter, I am not at all happy with it, it does not progress the story and is really just an excuse for a lemon, so if you are not really interested, just read the beginning and the end and skip the middle. I will post another chapter right away to make up for this!

Warning: Lemon!

**Chapter 8 – The Night of the New Moon**

Two days had elapsed and the group once again sat dinning in the princess's sitting room. Both InuYasha and Yasha were out of sorts. It was the night of the new moon and both would soon become human.

Kagome was torn, she knew that InuYahsa would feel safer in the princess's heavily guarded rooms, but she really wanted to be alone with her mate when he turned human. Kagome had to smother a smile, once a month when InuYasha turned human, he felt it was alright to make love to his mate in ways he deemed unsafe in his true form. Always fearing he might hurt Kagome with his claws, fangs, or even his immense strength InuYasha held back and always tried to control himself.

As soon as they had finished dinner Kagome stood and taking InuYasha's hand turned to the princess stating "InuYasha and I have decided to stay in our room tonight. It would look strange if we suddenly changed our routine and I definitely don't want to draw any attention tonight."

Nodding her head in agreement the princess replied "You're right, just remember to draw the curtains and lock the door. You can come a little later than normal for breakfast, Yasha and I usually stay up till sunrise and I'd like to get a little sleep before we join the scholars."

Smiling Kagome nodded back and led InuYasha out of the princess's rooms and down the hall to their own bedroom.

Once they had drawn the curtains and double locked the door Kagome drew InuYasha to sit with her at the end of the bed. As she gazed at her mate Kagome was almost overwhelmed, InuYasha was not just hansom, he was a truly beautiful creature. InuYasha's features might not be as perfect as Sesshomaru's, but Kagome always found Sesshomaru's beauty almost too perfect and cold.

Then, as they sat, the sun set and InuYasha transformed into his human form. The changes never ceased to amaze Kagome. InuYasha's face itself really did not change shape, yet it was almost as if he were another man; defiantly as handsome, but not as exotically beautiful. It was startling how different InuYasha looked, and it was not just his now human ears. The fact that his fangs and claws were gone did not make much of an impact to his looks, but the change in his eye and hair color was so extreme that it seemed to change everything, his eyebrows now matched his hair and the lack of contrast made InuYasha's face appear softer and somehow younger.

Kagome smiled as the transformation completed and then pulled InuYasha's head down so she could kiss him. It was always a shock not to feel the sharp points of fangs with her tongue but Kagome took advantage and ravaged her mate's mouth as she normally couldn't.

As Kagome reached out and started to untie InuYasha's haori her now human mate smiled, pulled back, and completed undressing himself. Not to be left behind Kagome quickly stripped herself and lay expectantly on their bed. She was quite pleased when her mate joined her on the bed kissing her thoroughly.

Much to Kagome's disappointment InuYasha finally broke their impassioned kiss. She was soon rewarded; however, as InuYasha began to leave a trail of open mouthed kissed which traveling down her jaw line and neck, led first to one breast and then the other. Not stopping too long in one spot InuYasha continued his downward journey circling and dipping his tongue into his mate's navel.

Not wishing to tarry too long InuYasha resumed his travels towards his ultimate goal. InuYasha could not resist smirking as he reached his destination, licking eagerly at the warm moist folds that enticed him. Tonight, however, InuYasha could indulge himself, slipping one clawless finger, then two and finally three into his now moaning and squirming mate he began to search not stopping his delightful probing until he found Kagome's G spot. As he brushed against that special spot, Kagome's moans turned to shrieks of pleasure. Unrelentingly, InuYasha probed and stroked while simultaneously rubbing and licking at her clit sending Kagome into orgasm after orgasm, until the exhausted girl begged for him to stop and fill her already. Not wishing to disappoint, InuYasha slowly pulled out his human fingers and eagerly inserted his throbbing organ. Knowing that he would not have his normal insatiable stamina InuYasha decided on quality, not quantity. Pumping as slowly as he could InuYasha wanted to see how long he could last. Occasionally speeding up, then slowing down to a near stop InuYasha realized he could keep himself going for a fairly long time, Kagome on the other hand found herself once again on a rollercoaster of nearly unending pleasure, she realized if InuYasha did not cum soon she just might pass out from too many orgasms.

Reaching up Kagome managed to get her hand on InuYasha neck so she could pull his head down, once she had her mates attention she moaned "If you don't cum soon I'm going to pass out and go to sleep, I don't think I can take much more of this, you crazy human!" Chuckling, InuYasha quickly sped up, thrusting as hard and deep as he could. When he finally came the pleasure was so intense, so overwhelming, InuYasha knew this was it for the night. Fearing he would collapse on top of his exhausted mate InuYasha quickly rolled himself next to Kagome and gathering her into his arms and almost immediately fell asleep.

Several hours had passed and InuYasha now lay awake, holding the still sleeping Kagome in his arms. No matter how tired he was, it was really impossible for InuYasha to get much sleep in his human form. Too many years of persecution had left the hanyou somewhat paranoid when it came to his night of weakness. So he lay and waited for sunrise and the return of his powers.

InuYasha did not need to see the sky through the drawn curtains to know when dawn was approaching. With each beat of his heart he could feel the change approaching. At InuYasha's involuntary sigh of relief Kagome awoke and quickly turned so she could watch her mate return to the form she loved so much. As much as she had enjoyed her one night a month human lover, Kagome could not wait for the return of what she considered her true mate.

Kagome could not suppress a smile when InuYasha began to change. Claws, fangs, and hair were the first to change, then finally the human ears disappeared and soon InuYasha's two adorable dog ears seemed to pop up out of his hair.

As soon as the transformation was complete InuYasha smiled back at his mate and snuggling into a comfortable position the couple fell back to sleep.

Several doors down the hall a similar transformation was occurring. As Yasha turned from a small human boy back into his hanyou form he also sighed in relief. Little princess Kagome had tried to stay up the entire night with Yasha, but finally fell asleep leaning against the boy's shoulder. Deciding the princess would be more comfortable in her bed; the now transformed hanyou easily picked his mistress up and laid her on her bed. Yasha then settled himself on the floor and leaning against the side of his princess's bed and allowed himself to lightly doze.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Warning: Lemons!

**Chapter 9 – An Impatient Hanyo**

Kagome was worried, ever since they had started working that morning InuYasha had been in one of his moods. Grumbling and muttering to himself, glaring and bounding around with way too much pent up energy. Kagome knew InuYasha was going to blow up any second. Finally, deciding to take the initiative before someone got hurt; Kagome approached her mate and demanded "InuYasha what's gotten into you? You've been in a mood all morning; you look like your ready to tear someone's head off!"

When InuYasha just glared Kagome lost what little patience she had and threatened "You know I don't like slamming you into the floor, especially a marble one, so don't get me angry – words! - use words! Don't just stand their glairing like we all will know what you're thinking – use words!"

InuYasha secretly thought Kagome was so cute when she got angry that he relented and with a half grin replied "Sorry, just don't really know what's gotten into me. It's just; I think we really need to be on our way. We've unraveled enough of the dammed prophecy to get us going. I really don't think we will get that much more help here and I'm starting to get antsy. Come on you know I'm not patient at the best of times. I really do think I've been awfully good." Just to reinforce his contrite words InuYasha pouted, he then made his eyes big and round and let one ear droop – just a bit. He knew his sad puppy look always worked on Kagome.

Just as he had anticipated, the sad puppy look worked wonders, Kagome nodded in agreement and reaching up she gently stroked his drooping ear, then with a sigh she said "Actually I think your right, we really do need to get going. I think if the King had his way we'd be working on this stupid prophecy till the princess was all gown up. Let's talk to the others tonight so we all put up a unified front."

Nodding his agreement InuYasha returned quietly to his work, all the while determined that one way or another he would get them out of the castle and on the road. Quests did not get accomplished in a library and InuYasha knew from hard experience that long hours on the road, false leads and dangerous encounters were to be expected. He also was curious to see how his young counterpart and the princess would handle the 'real world'. Would they embrace the freedom of the road or would they both – as Kagome so oddly put it 'freak out'. Before they set foot out of the safety of the castle he would have to stress to the two children that hardship should be expected and that he would not tolerate bratty behavior. He had had enough of Shippo's troublemaking to last a lifetime.

As the group headed back to the princess's rooms for dinner InuYasha tried to plan what he wanted to say. He was somewhat worried that the princess would want to complete more work on the prophecy before heading out into the unknown and Yasha would go along with whatever his mistress decided.

Dinner had passed uneventfully and InuYasha was still deciding on how to broach the subject of starting their quest.

Finally as the group sat sipping tea InuYasha cleared his throat and began "Listen, I know we haven't finished deciphering the entire scroll, but I really think it's about time we got going. Our friends at home probably think we're dead by now." Glancing at Kagome for just a moment and noting that she was nodding in agreement he quickly continued "I know we all talked about starting soon and I think we should start in the next day or so. I also think things will start to make more sense once were on the road. If we're out there doing what we are supposed to do then everything should start to fall into place. So what do you two think, do you want to get going?"

Yasha and the princess exchanged looks and the princess replied "We were just thinking the same thing. If we start out tomorrow or the next day we'll have almost a whole month before the next – 'you know what'. Just be prepared, father will not be pleased, if he had his way I'd be an old woman before we ever got started! I think it will be best if we just start packing and let everyone know that we will be leaving the day after tomorrow. Father really has no choice, it's not like anyone here could stop you or Yasha from taking us out of the castle. However, it would be much simpler if father cooperates with us. With his help we will be able to travel through the kingdom much faster. I don't think much will happen till we get further north."

As InuYasha sighed in relief Kagome turned to her young counterpart and spoke "I think we should send a note to your father and another to the scholars informing them of our plan to depart. We have to make sure they realize our departure is not a subject up for discussion, and while their help will be greatly appreciated by us, a lack of cooperation will not stop us. One way or another we are all leaving."

The princess and Kagome quickly set about tactfully crafting the two notes, they really did not want to offend the King or for that matter the scholars. Finally satisfied with their handiwork they quickly transcribed three more copies of the scholar's note, so they could send a personalized letter to each scholar. The princess then summoned a servant to deliver all of the notes to their respective recipients.

The moment the servant left with the letters, the princess began to nervously pace the room. She had already warned the others, her father would probably come storming in as soon as he read his note.

True to her word, not 15 minuets had passed when unannounced; the King came storming through the door. Barely coming to a stop he demanded "What are you thinking, are all of you mad? We've only just begun to unravel that damn scroll and you want to go off blindly looking for that relic, we don't even know what it looks like or what danger it might pose!"

Deciding that he had the best chance at holding his own against the King, InuYasha stepped forward to interrupt the Kings tirade "Your majesty, no disrespect, but we have to go. You've never been on a quest – Kagome and I have. We have to be out there looking or nothing will ever happen. Your own scholars have told you that they will never be able to fully decipher that scroll. Prophecies don't start to make any sense till you're in the middle of them. Well, we know how this one has to start – the four of us have to begin our journey north. Once we start the rest will fall into place. Now you can increase the odds in our favor by helping us; the easier the journey north the better our chances. But please realize that if you try and stop us, we will just go. You know you can't stop us; the walls of this castle are no barrier to Yasha or me."

Considering that InuYasha rarely uttered more than a few words at a time, everyone, including the King were somewhat taken aback by the length and emphatic nature of his speech.

Taking a deep breadth to calm himself, the King replied "I know you have to start sometime, I just wish we could have a better handle on what you're actually looking for, and what sort of dangers you'll run into. If the relic is really as powerful as we think it is, it is bound to be guarded. We have yet to uncover any information on what sort spells, or creatures you will be up against."

Thinking quickly the princess stepped towards her father and suggested "Papa why don't you send the scholars along with us? They could keep working and if anything of importance were to happen, they would be able to immediately incorporate it into their work."

Smiling the king nodded "That's a good idea; those fellows spend too much time cooped up as it is. Alright, I'll get things started, but as far as anyone is concerned, I am just taking you on a tour of the realm. You should get some rest tonight, tomorrow will be very busy."

After the king had left, the princess turned to the others and stifling a yawn said "Lets not tell papa that just about everyone in the castle has heard about our quest. In fact I'm sure half the kingdom knows about it by now!"

Seeing that the princess was tired Kaede shooed Kagome and InuYasha out of the room and instructed the children to get ready for bed.

As Kagome securely locked the door to their room she found herself also stifling a large yawn. This simply would not do, she had every intention of spending the better part of the night making love to InuYasha, falling asleep was not in the plan.

Unfortunately for Kagome, InuYasha was very aware of how sleepy Kagome was, and when it came to Kagome, InuYasha would always put her health and welfare before his own personal pleasure. He was going to get her to bed – to sleep.

As Kagome started to try and undress InuYasha she was surprised when he stopped her and leaning in, whispered in her ear "Not tonight, you're way too tired and I don't want you exhausted."

Even pouting Kagome could not get her mate to cooperate. InuYasha had efficiently stripped her of her clothing and then carefully tucked her into bed. InuYasha then removed his own clothing and slid into bed, gathering his mate into his arms. But before Kagome could put into motion any plans of seduction she might have, InuYasha began to growl, ever so gently. He then began to rub Kagome's stomach in rhythm to the soothing rumbling growl. Kagome didn't even have time to curse before she was lulled into a deep slumber. InuYasha smiled, he instinctively knew how to lull a pup to sleep and Kagome was just as susceptible.

It was early morning and InuYasha was already awake, but he felt no need to get up, he was enjoying how good it felt to just lay in bed, holding his mate. As he took a deep breath of his mate's calming scent, Kagome began to stir. Laying quietly as she woke up Kagome realized InuYasha had put her to sleep as if she were an uncooperative pup! Well it was morning now and she would get some payback!

Turing over to face her mate, Kagome reached up and began to rub InuYasha's ears. From experience she knew just how to rub them, not to relax, but to excite. Kagome grinned to herself; two could play the manipulation game!

Kagome continued to rub InuYasha's ears so they became stiff and stood perked up, but that wasn't the only thing that was getting stiff and perking up. Releasing one ear, Kagome reached down and began to stroke and pull, soon InuYasha was moaning, the double stimulation was almost too much and he knew if she kept this up he would cum much sooner than he would want to. Just when he thought he would lose it, Kagome moved her hand back up to his neglected ear. He knew that as long as she was working his ears like that he would be kept in the more submissive role. Realizing that Kagome was probably a bit miffed at being put to sleep like a pup, InuYasha decided being dominated with pleasure was a small price to pay. He would let Kagome do whatever she wanted to, he was sure to enjoy it.

As Kagome continued to rub InuYasha's ever so sensitive ears she began to ungulate rubbing herself against her mate. Then as she began to get excited herself, Kagome raised herself up so she could straddle InuYasha, never stopping her attention to his ears. Then she finally lowered herself so she was filled with her rock hard mate.

Kagome began to slowly ride InuYasha lifting and lowering herself careful to keep her hands on her mate's ears. Kagome knew that as long as she rubbed those ears, InuYasha would be rendered almost unable to think – the pleasure was that intense. Curious if she could make her hanyou cum just by rubbing his ears, Kagome lowered herself completely and just concentrated on stimulating InuYasha's ears, rubbing, pulling, and pinching. Kagome smiled as InuYasha began to thrash on the bed, moaning continually, his hands tangled in the bed sheets, finally begging for Kagome to make him cum. Kagome obliged by rubbing InuYasha's ears faster and harder. Just when Kagome thought InuYasha would not be able to take any more, she found herself lifted as InuYasha's back arched. Kagome was impressed; her mate had arched so high he had actually lifted her into the air. As InuYasha reached the apex of his arch, Kagome gasped in unexpected pleasure. The hard cock inside of her began to swell and then pulsate, within moments she could feel InuYasha start to cum harder than she had ever felt before. InuYasha seemed to be frozen at the height of ecstasy, his cock continuing to throb and fill her with his seed. With each new pulsation Kagome screamed her pleasure as she road an incredible wave of orgasms.

After what seemed like an eternity InuYasha collapsed back onto the bed. Rendered momentarily unable to speak, he smugly smiled. Kagome had collapsed onto of him, unable to even lift herself off of his now softening cock. Finally gathering enough energy to roll of her mate, Kagome lay next to InuYasha for several minutes until she could speak "Well I guess you understand why I love those ears of yours so much. They sure can do the most amazing things!"

Rolling on his side so he could look at his mate InuYasha asked "So are we even now?"

Kagome smiled back "Yea, I think so, but don't go putting me to sleep like some pup, I am your mate, have a little more consideration."


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Chapter 10 – The journey begins**

They were finally on their way.

Kagome was riding a sweet natured mare as was the princess. InuYasha was walking next to Kagome's horse and Yasha walked next to his princess's. Both hanyous had refused mounts claiming they could run much faster than any horse.

Kagome smiled to herself as she thought back on the last 24 hours.

True to his word the King had arranged for a modest caravan to be swiftly prepared. Food, clothing and other provisions were being efficiently packed.

The scholars on the other hand were slowing the preparations down. With the exception of Mikio all of the scholars viewed their impending departure as a great inconvenience. How could they continue working without the resources of the King's great library? As a consequence InuYasha and Yasha soon found themselves loading heavy boxes filled with books and scrolls onto a sturdy cart. InuYasha knew that the heavily laden cart would become a hindrance once they passed from the more civilized parts of the realm, but if bringing all these books got the quest started, that was all that counted. He knew that as soon as things got dangerous the books and the scholars would be sent back to the safety of the castle.

The foursome's own packing had for the most part been completed days earlier. The princess had packed sensible travel clothes for herself and Kagome and InuYasha really only needed some extra undergarments. Yasha turned out to be their biggest problem. Yes he understood that it would get much colder as they traveled north, no he would not wear more cloths. Having found out that the princess had already ordered a few black haori in the style of InuYasha's firerat the hanyou suggested that she just pack them and a few nagajuban; InuYasha reasoned that once they reached the colder and damper climate of the northern forest, convincing Yasha to dress in warmer clothes wouldn't be as much of a battle.

That night they all retired early, though Kagome and InuYasha did not get all that much sleep. Kagome blushed when she thought back on their night of wild lovemaking.

Kagome was jarred out of her recollections when the caravan came to sudden a halt. Sighing she realized once again the local population had come out to pay their respects to their King who was riding behind his personal guards near the front of the procession. After accepting the adoration of the small crowd for a few moments the King signaled that they were ready to move on, but not before the locals had a chance to stare and whisper about the princess, her older look-alike and the two hanyou who flanked them.

Kagome could see by their continually moving ears that neither InuYasha nor Yasha were happy under the scrutiny of strangers, while they were in the castle they had been insulated from rude comments – no one wanted to anger the little princess, but here on the road, comments regarding the "half-breed demon spawn" were bound to upset the hanyous. Kagome was actually more worried about Yasha than her own mate. InuYasha had had two centuries to learn to deal with the insults that came with being a hanyou. Little Yasha on the other hand had a much more sheltered upbringing. Despite the loss of his mother and subsequent sale as a slave by his own half brother, as the adopted son of the slave master and then the body guard and companion of the princess Yasha has been protected from many of the harsh truths of the world.

Kagome was also worried about how the princess and Yasha would adapt to the hardships of the road, so it was with some relief that she discovered that the first leg of their journey would be fairly comfortable and safe. Most of the towns within a two week's ride of the capital tended to be large and prosperous. The roads between these towns were well maintained and well guarded. Therefore, the King had decided to travel north heading from one large town to the next. Taking this slightly less direct route they would still be able to make good time, conserve their supplies, and even sleep in the comfort of a bed nearly every night.

Glancing up at his mate InuYasha commented "I doubt we'll make very much progress these first few days, between the King stopping all the time to greet his subjects and those complaining scholars wanting to stop all the time to stretch their legs."

As InuYasha finished speaking Kagome nodded and glanced back at the carriage which carried Kaede and three of the scholars. Mikio had refused to ride with the other scholars maintaining that he could not stomach all of their whining, though in reality the only one whining was Toshio. Hisoka was far to shy to complain while Tetsuya seemed more distracted than put out; still Mikio had elected to sit next to the driver of the book laden cart.

Kagome retuned her gaze to her mate she replied "I know it's nice to be riding on these safe well maintained roads, but I have a feeling we'll make better time once we get out of this densely populated area. I like sleeping in a nice bed as much as the next person, but I think you're right, were stopping all the time and I'm worried we won't get started very early tomorrow."

As if to prove her very point, the King dropped back to let his daughter know that they were already approaching the town where they would spend the night.

Glancing at the sun which was still fairly high, Kagome sighed; there were still over two good hours of daylight that could have been spent riding.

Correctly interpreting Kagome's sigh, the King turned his attention to the miko and added "Don't worry; I will insist that everyone turn in early tonight, we will breakfast at dawn and immediately resume our journey. I hope that this meets with your approval."

Blushing Kagome could only nod and stammer "I'm sorry; we've never traveled with royalty before. I know that you can't just ignore you're people. Also when InuYasha and I travel, we tend to avoid towns, they're generally not very welcoming to hanyou."

The King seemed to ponder Kagome's words and replied "It is the same here, higher youkai essentially live in their own world and humans in another; hanyou don't have a place in either. Do not be surprised if people assume InuYasha is your slave or servant, hanyou are rare, and since my daughter has one as her slave others will assume that similarly you own InuYasha."

Kagome glanced down at InuYasha surprised that he did not seem upset at the King's words.

Sensing his mate's eyes on him InuYasha glanced up and said "Kagome the King's right, and to be honest it's probably safer for you if people assume I'm your servant or slave."

Kagome nodded and held back her tears, why were people so cruel, why couldn't they see that most youkai were motivated by the same things as humans. They had families and wanted to provide for their children. If youkai were so much like humans, it went double for hanyou. Hanyou had human hearts, they just wanted to live their lives and have a chance for love and family.

Pretending to be interested in the city they were approaching the little princess thought about her father's words. She did not want stupid people upsetting her Yasha. Leaning over she spoke to her slave "Yasha, I'm a little nervous about going into the city, would you ride up here with me? I'd feel a lot safer."

Leaping nimbly up onto the horse Yasha could smell that something was bothering his princess. Indeed it was, the princess was not as naive as everyone thought she was about the "outside world" she knew hanyou were hunted and killed by both humans and youkai. She had heard enough whispered comments in the castle about her pet "dog boy" and those were from people who feared her. She would do anything in her power to protect Yasha from the cruel reality of the world.

InuYasha and Yasha both tensed up as they entered the walled town, but much to their amazement the only comments they could overhear were those regarding the honor of a visit by the king.

Soon InuYasha was relieved to see that they were nearing a large, prosperous looking inn. He was happy to be getting away from the large crowds of the city. It was almost impossible to guard Kagome and the princess properly while surrounded by scurrying throngs of people.

As soon as their little caravan entered the inn's courtyard, stable boys came running to lead the horses to the stable. Bowing deeply as he ushered the King into the inn's main sitting room Kagome was struck by the fact that the innkeeper was tall and cadaverously thin, dressed all in black, she thought he looked more like an undertaker than an innkeeper.

Despite his appearance the innkeeper knew his business and efficiently led the King, the princess, Kagome, InuYasha, and Yasha to a beautifully decorated private dining room to dine and sit at ease. Kaede and the scholars were led to a somewhat less opulent room, while the guards and cart drivers were expected to eat in the public dining room.

Kagome was slightly startled when they entered the private dinning room. The princess favored a western style dinning table in the castle, with real chairs. Here was a more traditional Japanese set up. A low table surrounded by mats to kneel on. The large round table was set up with four place settings on the furthest side of the table so no one sat with their back to the door.

InuYasha was curious to see where the King would sit. If he were arraigning the seating he would seat the princess in the furthest spot to the left. It was the second safest spot. Next to her he would place the King. It was the furthest from the door, the hardest to attack and the easiest to defend. He would place Kagome next to the king and he would sit in the place furthest to the right. His spot would be the closest to the door and the most vulnerable to attack, but he was the strongest and fastest. It was his duty to protect the others.

The King immediately motioned for his daughter to take the furthest spot to the left while he took the place next to her. InuYasha smiled to himself. The King was no fool; he had immediately placed himself and his daughter in the two safest spots in the room.

As the princess knelt in her spot Yasha quietly knelt behind her, hand on his sword his eyes never left the door. Seeing Yasha kneeling stoically behind his mistress shocked Kagome, when they ate in the princess's rooms Yasha sat and ate at the table with everyone else. Here in the presence of the king she realized Yasha would never presume to take such a liberty. Worried as to when and how the little hanyou would get his dinner Kagome just stood frozen. The King, thinking the young miko did not know where to sit, smiled and indicated that she should take the place next to him. InuYasha then took his place by his mate's side.

Sitting at the well laden table, the King realized that he had never even bothered to take a meal with the miko and her mate. Feeling somewhat guilty he began "I have just been thinking about the fact that we never took a meal together. I let my personal concern over my daughter's safety overrule my better manners. Please tell me about yourselves. You mentioned that you have been on quests before. Was it similar to this one?"

Glancing at her mate Kagome replied "It was quite different from this quest, excepting the fact that InuYasha and I were destined to play our parts. It's a long story, we've told the princess and Yasha parts of what we did, but if you'd like I can tell you the whole story. I've been thinking it might make a good tale, much of it was quite fantastic."

As they began to dine, the King nodded his interest and Kagome launched into what she liked to think of as the "quick version" of the tale of the Shikon No Tama, her reincarnation, travels through the bone eater's well and the epic battle with Naraku.

Kagome's tale was fascinating, but the little princess realized the miko was somewhat distracted. She kept glancing at Yasha a worried look on her face. It then occurred to the young princess that this was the first time Yasha was not eating at the table with everyone else. Determined to relieve Kagome of her anxiety the princess quietly loaded a bowl with rice, vegetables and meat and handed it back to Yasha, the hanyou quickly devoured his meal and without a word resumed his alert posture. Seeing that the boy had been given his meal Kagome was once again able to concentrate on her story

By the time Kagome had finished her tale they had finished their meal and were sitting with tea and sweets. Kagome smiled to herself when she noticed that the princess had casually slipped Yasha a small plate of sweets without ever breaking her concentration on the fantastic story being told.

When Kagome had finally stopped talking the King sat in stunned silence; the little miko had only been a few years older than his daughter when she and her hanyou had taken on an evil of unimaginable power and had prevailed.

Gathering himself together the King thanked Kagome and reminded his companions that they would be rising at dawn and suggested that they all retire for the night.

As if on cue the cadaverous innkeeper reappeared to personally escort first the King to his room and then the princess and her companions to theirs, where Kaede was already waiting.

As they did on their first night in the castle, Kaede slept on a small cot, Kagome and the princess shared the bed while Yasha and InuYasha slept sitting on the floor, Yasha his back against the side of the bed and InuYasha against the wall opposite the door to the room.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

I just want to thank everyone who is reading my story; I would love to get some reviews just to get an idea as to how you like the story and more importantly my writing style, I am trying to keep everyone's manner of speech very natural and in keeping with their personality, I also tend to write in the past tense not the present tense, some people like one and some the other. Any sort of comments or constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated as I am always trying to improve my stories (and your enjoyment).

**Chapter 11 – One town after another**

It was their eight day on the road and Kagome was getting more and more unnerved. This was not Japan, it was not an island, in fact it was a huge kingdom with a large fertile flood plane surrounded by a desert which slowly gave way to a forested land at the kingdoms northernmost border. The countryside they had traveled through these last eight days had mostly resembled Arabia, but it was all so Japanese! The people looked, dressed and acted fairly Japanese, many of the towns and cities even had the same names as places in Japan. True, this land had many dissimilarities from the Japan Kagome knew, but not being an island there was a great deal of interaction and trade with the rest of this parallel world. Some towns were almost pure Japanese, tatami mats on the floor, low tables to eat at, and futons to sleep on, other towns seemed to have a very Chinese or Western influence, with thick wool rugs, high dinning tables and chairs and more European style beds. Kagome found this all very disconcerting.

While Kagome was disconcerted, InuYasha was just bored. Eight days on the road and not one bit of action, just one town after another. No highwaymen, no bloodthirsty youkai, no evil sorcerers, no upstart nobles trying to kill the king. Even the stupid human guards traveling with their party were being polite to him, not even an excuse to get into a fight. Boring!

InuYasha glanced past his mate noting that the little princess and Yasha did not seem bored. After living in the sheltered world of the castle the two children found everything fascinating. They had never associated with anyone other than courtiers, servants or slaves. Even before Yasha came to the castle he had still only lived in the rarified circle of human nobility with his princess mother. The princess and Yasha found the sight of peasants and merchants as fascinating as they themselves were to the common people they passed.

Ever since the first day of travel the princess would ask Yasha to ride behind her for one reason or another. Most days as they neared a town or city she stated that she was nervous and she would ask Yasha to ride with her. Today however was different, they had left the desert and it's evenly spaced trade cities behind and the countryside was slowly becoming greener, this was the first day they would not be spending the night in a city or town and so she had no reason to ask Yasha to join her on her horse.

As the day progressed the party stopped for a brief lunch near a small stream. Kagome proposed they have what she called a "picnic" and soon blankets were spread out for the party to sit on. Even the scholars were asked to join the king and his daughter's group as they ate. The atmosphere was so relaxed that the princess was even able to persuade Yasha to shyly sit and eat with everyone else.

As the party continued riding through the afternoon Kagome mused that as interesting as it had been to eat "rustic style" with the king, what she was really interested in was to see what sort of arraignments would be made when they stopped for the night.

Her musings were eventually answered as the day progressed. The advanced guards returned with information that an ideal camping spot was just up ahead. Situated near a stream the large clearing was flat and easily defended.

The guards quickly began assembling a lightweight sleeping pavilion for the King; it seemed everyone else was on their own in setting up tents. InuYasha & Yasha quickly assembled a medium sized tent that would house the four of them (plus their ever-present chaperone Kaede).

Rather than dip into their store of preserved travel meat, InuYasha volunteered to go hunting, quickly returning with a good sized boar.

The King was stunned as he watched InuYasha saunter back into the camp with the large boar casually slung over his shoulder. The animal easily weighed 300 or 400 pounds and sported deadly tusks, yet InuYasha acted as if it were light as a feather. Depositing the already field dressed beast into the cook's care, the hanyou rejoined his traveling companions. Wondering just how strong InuYasha really was the King casually approached the hanyou as he sat next to his mate, Yasha and the little princess.

Settling himself down next to his daughter the King turned to InuYasha and inquired "If I may ask, just how strong are you and how long will it take Yasha to reach your level of strength?"

InuYasha thought for a moment "I really don't know how strong I am, I could pick up one or two of your horses easy enough and I can pull a good sized tree out of the ground without any problem. I seem to be developing almost the same as a full blooded Inuyoukai, and Inuyoukai keep getting stronger and stronger the older they get. I don't think this holds true for regular hanyou, but my father was incredibly powerful and even my stupid brother has admitted that there are only a handful of full blooded youkai that are more powerful than me - of course he insists that he's one of them. I also seem to have gotten more powerful since Kagome and I mated. As for Yasha, he's already much stronger than his size should allow for, if he's riled up he might be stronger than an adult human, though I don't know how long he could keep that level of power up. He'll definitely be stronger, than a human by the time he's 14 or 15. He'll keep getting stronger and stronger as he grows into an adult and then will keep getting stronger as he ages. He's probably not as strong as I was at his age, but then he's had it pretty easy. I was on my own and I had to get tough pretty young or I would have starved to death or been killed."

As the group waited for their dinner the talk turned to more pressing matters, such as the distance to the next town, speculation as to how long it would take to reach the borders of the Northern Province and how long the scholars would remain with the traveling party.

Before the King knew it, dinner was finished and it was time for bed. As he watched his daughter and her companions head into their tent he mused that during the last few days he had spent more time with his daughter than any other time he could remember. The coming quest might bring great danger, but he was thankful for this opportunity to spend time with his child in a setting other than the strict confines of their castle and its artificial social strata.

Deciding to say goodnight to his child the King slowly neared the tent his daughter shared with her odd companions. Peeking inside he immediately noticed Kaede already sleeping on a small cot. His daughter and the miko were bedded down next to each other each with her own bed roll, while the two hanyou were sitting cross-legged, swords in hand, on either side of the girls looking like they had no intention on sleeping. Not wishing to seem to be snooping he quickly bad his daughter a good night and then headed towards his own spacious tent.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Chapter 12 – An Interesting Day!**

'Well' Kagome sighed to herself as their group entered a small trading town two days later, 'InuYasha certainty can't say we had a boring day today'.

After their one night camping out, the scholar Toshio became intolerable. He was not a vagabond, he was not used to sleeping 'in the dirt', he could not work under these conditions, you name it and he complained about it. Even the King had to admit that the scholars were really not adding much useful information. They were only getting a few hours of work done each day after arriving in whatever town they would be spending the night in. It was at this point the King decided to send the book cart and the scholars all back to the capital city.

Mikio had petitioned to remain with the group and since he was strong and uncomplaining the King relented and indicated that the huge scholar could continue with them. It was then that the great old Tetsuya spoke up "I too shall continue with you great King. These old bones require no plush bed or fancy meals."

Everyone was stunned, it was true that Tetsuya never complained and kept working under any and all conditions. InuYasha, however, snorted at Tetsuya's quiet declaration. At everyone's inquiring looks InuYasha stated "If you haven't noticed the old man is a lot tougher than he looks. He never seems to get tired, his mind is sharper than Toshio, Hisoka and Mikio's put together and hell, he doesn't even smell old."

Kagome was the first to respond "What do you mean he doesn't smell old?"

"Just what it means" was InuYasha instant retort "He smells like a human adult male in the prime of life. Come on even you humans know that the old smell – well old, Tetsuya does not smell old and my nose is never wrong about these things. Ask the kid he'll say the same as me."

As the group's eyes moved to rest on Yasha, the little hanyou nodded his head in agreement "InuYasha is right, master Tetsuya does not smell old, he smells of…" Yasha paused obviously searching for the right word, then concluded "he smells of power."

Picking up where the little hanyou had left off InuYasha picked up "He's right, I have smelled and felt all sorts of...power. Kagome has immense spiritual power, my brother – shear brute Youkai power, Naraku overwhelming evil power, but the old man just has POWER. Like POWER written in the biggest boldest kanji you can think of."

At InuYasha's declaration Tetsuya started to chuckle. "There really is more to you than you let on young hanyou and you are younger than me even with your 200 plus years. Though I am not so much older than you, I am but a mortal human and even with all of my acquired power and knowledge I cannot hold back the march of years and I am growing old. Unlike you, my long life is not natural and my body is slowly growing old and I will die, there is nothing I can do to stop this and this is the way it should be, it is the proper way of the world. I fear, however, that the old O-Harai-Ya who sent you on this quest wishes to upset the natural order of things, with the power of the relic I believe that she will not only be able to make herself immortal, but she will have access to unlimited power, she may be able to take over your world if she so desires to. This is why I feel that I must continue with you as long as I can and if I must quit this quest you must still let me place safeguards on the relic before you return to your own world with it."

So it was decided Toshio and quiet Hisoka would return with the book cart to the capital city where they could continue working on the prophecy. InuYasha and Kagome knew that they would have to return to the capital city anyway since the O-Harai-Ya's return information package clearly stated that the two could only attempt a return to their own world from the exact spot of their arrival.

So it was that the two scholars, the laden book cart and several of the Kings guards headed back towards the capital. The rest of the party continued on towards a small trading town where they had decided to spend the next night.

The following day started out pleasantly enough. Without Toshio's complaining the entire party was able to arise early and partake of a hearty breakfast. The weather was pleasant and the simple dirt road was surprisingly free of pot holes. As the morning progressed everyone was in a good mood as they were making good time.

As usual InuYasha was walking to the left of Kagome's horse and Yasha to the right of his princess's. The two girls had taken to riding next to each other each day; InuYasha explained it was much easier for Yasha and himself to guard the two when they were together. If there was danger InuYasha could leave Kagome's side knowing that Yasha would still be there to protect her.

They were traveling through a partially wooded stretch of road, since the road ahead was obscured by trees, the King sent out an advanced guard to scout for a place to stop for lunch. Suddenly InuYasha tensed, unsheathing and transforming Tessaiga in a single fluid motion. Sprinting ahead he yelled back to the remainder of the Kings guard that there was trouble ahead.

Within moments the trouble was upon them. A huge scorpion youkai came into sight; one of the King's advance guards still impaled on its stinger. Surrounding the elephant sized monster were at least a dozen identical cow sized versions.

InuYasha immediately got to work hacking and slashing several of the smaller monsters out of the way so he could fix his attack on the huge arachnid, leaving the smaller versions for the rest of the guards to deal with.

Kagome quickly grabbed her bow, thankful that InuYasha insisted she wear a shooting glove at all times. Willing her spiritual powers into an arrow Kagome notched the arrow and aimed it at the same large bug InuYasha was slashing at. She reasoned if they could take out the largest of the creatures InuYasha would be able to help the guards clean up the smaller ones quickly. As soon as InuYasha leapt out of her line of fire, dodging the poisonous stinger that was jabbing at him, Kagome released her arrow. As the arrow flew towards the scorpion, InuYasha felt Kagome's strong spiritual power approaching. Realizing that Kagome had let fire an arrow he aimed a huge blow timed to hit the monster seconds after the arrow. The combination proved to be fatal to the creature which exploded into a sticky disgusting mess. Within seconds InuYasha was able to turn his attention to the smaller scorpions.

Not wishing to be left out little Yasha threw himself at one of the smaller scorpions that was headed towards Kagome and his princess.

As the well protected King watched Yasha quickly dispatching his target he had to admit to himself that while Yasha threw himself into battle with the same gusto as InuYasha, he used his sword with much greater technical skill. It was obvious to the King's trained eye that InuYasha was completely self taught, his technique relying heavily on the immense size of his sword and his sheer brute strength, while Yasha's skill with the sword showed that he had truly benefited from the instruction his daughter had insisted on.

Within a matter of minuets InuYasha had dispatched all of the remaining small arachnids, chopping their ugly heads off with mighty blows from Tessaiga.

As InuYasha sauntered back towards Kagome and the princess, he stopped briefly in front of the King and apologized "Sorry that took so long, I didn't want any more of your men to get hurt so I had to hold back and not use any of my big attacks. If there had been more room I could have taken them all out at the same time."

The group quickly skirted the messy carcasses of the dead youkai and continued down the road looking for the second advance guard who they found injured but alive. The fortunate guard had been battered and knocked into a ditch, but not poisoned. Placing the injured guard in the carriage with Kaede and Tetsuya the party continued down the road.

After a brief stop for lunch the group resumed their travel hoping to make up time and reach the next small trading village before nightfall, where they hoped to arrange for the cremation of the slain guard.

Once again the party made good time, the new advanced guard returning periodically to let them know that all was safe.

InuYasha did not like this wooded stretch of road at all, the road curved and twisted never giving the group more than a glimpse of the road ahead, he could tell that Yasha was also on edge, the young hanyou's ears swiveled nonstop and his hand never left his sword.

The attack seemed to come out of nowhere. Once again the advanced scouts were of no use. Fortunately this time the attackers were only human, unfortunately there were at least thirty of them.

InuYasha sighed, he really did not like killing humans, but these were obviously highway robbers and a danger to his mate and his mate's double, not to mention the King they traveled with.

InuYasha knew he could not use the wind scar on humans, so rather than try and hack at them with his rusted katana he opted for his favorite standby, claws. Launching himself into the heaviest concentration of men InuYasha began to claw and punch the humans, instantly snapping necks and causing wounds with his hands as deep and severe as any sword could.

Yasha mindful that he had to protect his princess and Kagome took a defensive stance. Several of the foot-pads who thought the girls a tempting target found themselves quite dead as Yasah expertly welded his sword with such speed that many of his moves were just a blur.

Kagome instantaneously realized that she would not be able to use any of her spiritual powers against humans; before she could even formulate a plan of actions the little princess grabbed her own bow and arrows, stood in her saddle and began shooting at the attackers with deadly accuracy.

As Kagome glanced at her mate she realized he had just thrown his blades of blood. Infuriated that one of the would be robbers had wounded her mate Kagome took aim and began shooting into the throng of men.

The battle hardened King surrounded by his guards had no intention of letting others battle for him. Riding from behind his guards the King swooped down trampling and hacking at the men who had dared attack their King and his daughter.

As soon as the attackers realized that, despite their numbers, they were severely outclassed they began to beat a hasty retreat. Unfortunately, InuYasha, Yasha and the King were not the forgiving sort. As the men ran they were efficiently cut down. Finally there were only three robbers left, one dressed and armed much better than all the rest. The King indicated that these three should not be killed; he wanted to make sure this was a case of simple robbery and not a planned coup.

With a growling InuYasha on one side, Yasha on the other and several armed guards behind them the robbers quaked with fear as they were approached by the King.

"Do you know who I am" the King demanded without preamble. At the terrified humans look of confusion the King gave a small smirk. "Well when we get back to the capital for your public execution you will find out". Then turning towards his guards the King added "Tie them up, we will leave them in custody at the next village, we can then pick them up when we return to the capital."

Looking back at the two hanyou who had dispatched the majority of the foot-pads the King noticed that InuYasha's arm was covered in blood, immediately the King inquired "InuYasha do you require medical attention?"

InuYasha laughed at the Kings concern replying "No, I'm fine; this scratch will be healed before we even get back on the road."

Realizing that InuYasha probably healed at an even faster rate than Yasha the King only nodded his understanding and returned to his horse.

As the group resumed their travel down the road, finding the two missing advance guards trussed up but alive, Kagome turned towards InuYasha commenting "Well InuYasha, I hope you won't be complaining tonight that we had another boring day!"


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Important author's note: Referencing the devastating earthquake that occurred a few days ago in Japan, I feel that I must mention that this chapter was written a very very long time ago and coincidentally contains a small earthquake; I do not want anyone to think that I would incorporate such an event into my story to simply play off of the recent tragedy and I hope this chapter does not upset anyone in that regards.

**Chapter 13 – A Big Decision**

The foot-pads had been left at the last village and the group was once again on the road. Kagome was getting rather nostalgic for the "good old days" when InuYasha would just carry her on his back. It was so much more comfortable than riding a horse. Glancing sideways Kagome notice that the princess, despite being a better technical rider, was getting no less weary of riding. Curious Kagome turned to her young counterpart and inquired "Princess I could not help but notice that you ride quite well. I have to admit that after all these days in the saddle, I'm sore in places I didn't even know could get sore! I wish I could just let InuYasha carry me on his back like he usually does!"

Rubbing her own backside a bit the little princess had to admit "Actually I started to learn how to ride when I was quite young, but father never really let me go anywhere with him so I didn't get a chance to do any long distance riding. Once I got Yasha, well if I had to go any distance around the castle grounds, I usually let Yasha carry me. Unfortunately, if I let Yasha carry me on his back here on the road, father would have an absolute fit! So I guess we have to suffer sore bottoms till we build up whatever you build up when you ride all day."

Kagome laughed and replied "I don't even want to think about what we are building up down there, I hope it's not calluses!"

The two girls were so busy laughing at the thought of calluses on their bottoms that they hardly noticed how rugged the terrain was getting. There were still a good number of tress, but now that they were climbing to a higher altitude, huge boulders and small rock outcroppings were starting to take over the scenery.

Finally a small flat clearing was located and a lunch break was called.

As they all sat around eating a simple cold meal, the princess noticed how serious her father was looking. Fearing that he was keeping some important news from them she inquired "Father what's wrong; you have such a look of concern. Is something wrong?"

Quickly flashing what he hoped was a reassuring smile the great King replied "No my dear daughter there is nothing wrong, other than this dreadful terrain. I fear that we will have to send the carriage and cart back soon. I know that Mikio and Tetsuya have been doing their best to keep working as we travel, but they really have not had anything useful to contribute for days now. I really should have sent them back with Toshio and Hisoka. I am also concerned about Kaede; will she be able to keep up on horseback? Part of me wants to send her back with the others, but I am not comfortable with you traveling around the countryside without a chaperone."

Kagome had to stifle a laugh; the little princess had more chaperones than she needed. It was not likely that anything would happen with Yasha, InuYasha, herself and the princess all sharing one tent! What did the king think would happen, some sort of pre-pubescent orgy? If nothing else, InuYasha was about as moral as they came. In reality he had never laid an improper hand on her until they were basically engaged!

Deciding to put the king's fears to rest Kagome ventured to speak "Your majesty, I don't think you have to worry about chaperoning your daughter. I can personally vouch for InuYasha's morality. I was just 15 when we started our quest and he never laid an improper hand on me. To be quite honest, InuYasha and I sort of feel like the princess and Yasha are – well like our younger sister and brother."

Nodding his understanding, the King replied "I have to agree that you and InuYasha seem to have taken my daughter and Yasha under your wings, so to speak. We will continue for as long as we can and then I will decide if Kaede will continue with us or return with the others."

The King then declared that they would push forward for the rest of the day. The terrain would be getting much worse. They would be heading into a small rocky mountain range and the pass that would lead to the Northern Province that was their goal. He knew the road would be narrowing as the small mountains rose above it and suitable camping sites would become scarce. They would not have a very comfortable night tonight and this would be a good test to see if Kaede could handle the worsening conditions. If she had trouble tonight then she would be sent back with the two scholars.

Once again on the road Kagome was concerned, the little princess had remained surprisingly quiet after the King had voiced his concerns. Voicing no opinion as to whether she wanted Kaede to continue with them or not. Kagome knew that Kaede was the nearest thing to a mother the princess had ever had, but she was also a servant under the princess's command.

Deciding that the little princess needed to talk about this issue Kagome took a breath and asked "Princess you were unusually quiet at lunch once your father mentioned sending Kaede back. Are you worried about her not being with us?"

Nibbling her bottom lip the Princess replied so quietly that Kagome had to strain to hear her over the gentle plopping of the horse's hoofs. "I don't know what to think, I've never really been without Kaede. Yasha and I are always trying to get away from her, but now that she might be sent back, I'm - I guess a little scared. It's not that I ever thought I needed a chaperone; it's just that as far back as I can remember she's the one who took care of me, and after I got Yasha – well she started to take care of him too. Then there is part of me that loves the idea of finally being freer and that makes me feel guilty."

Kagome sighed; she could almost understand the princess's dilemma. While she had not been brought up in the smothering constraints imposed by nobility, she was brought up in the upright moral atmosphere of a shrine.

When Kagome turned 15 and suddenly found herself 500 years in the past, traveling with a child who treated her as a mother figure, and three adults (though Sango usually was the only one who actually acted like an adult) Kagome felt a freedom she had never experienced before. It was hard for her not to just run wild and it was only the knowledge that she had to finish school that kept her at all in check.

Kagome also had to admit to herself that if circumstances had been just a tiny bit different and if InuYasha had not had such strong morals, she would have let InuYasha have his way with her. Fortunately for her very loose 15 year old morals, InuYasha, the son of a hime and a great youkai lord, if nothing else, always tried to conduct himself honorably especially where women were concerned.

So Kagome could understand the little princess's dilemma, on one hand she would love the idea of independence on the other she would fear the possibilities of what could happen.

Hoping to relieve her little counterpart's fears, Kagome replied "I wouldn't worry about it right now. If it turns out Kaede has to leave us you still will have your father, Yasha, InuYasha and me. We'll all make sure you're OK and you won't have to worry about Kaede getting hurt in this rough terrain. In addition, I don't know if you've noticed, but Kaede and Tetsuya have been spending a great deal of time together. Who knows, for once she might be the one getting up to no good!"

At the very thought of Kaede and Tetsuya together the poor princess didn't know if she should laugh or be horrified. What came out of her mouth was a very unladylike snort and "oh yuck". Quickly covering her mouth in embarrassment the princess quickly added "Excuse me, I mean I never thought of Kaede as being interested in – well you know – that kind of stuff."

Laughing Kagome replied "Well what do you think she is – made out of stone? She was probably quite a hottie when she was young!"

As the girls continued their very silly conversation, branching out from Kaede's supposed love life; to all sorts of gossip regarding the amorous adventures of several of the soldiers accompanying their group, Yasha could only roll his eyes in disbelief. Here they were on a dangerous quest and the girls were gossiping! As they continued down the road, InuYasha caught the attention of his counterpart and in a voice so low that only another inuhanyou could hear it commented "Get two girls together and that's the sort of silly stuff they do, might as well get used to it."

Yasha could only shake his head, girls! Then he smiled, his princess was having a good time and had another girl for company. Yasha occasionally felt guilty, his princess had had lots of other friends to play with before she got him, but it was odd how on that first day, the day he saved her life, his princess had sent her little playmates away without a second thought. After that, she seemed to have almost no interest in her former playmates; she only wanted to play with him. The only time she ever associated with any of the little girls she used to play with was during her more female oriented lessons, and even then Yasha would be there to guard her.

Yasha himself never questioned the fact that his princess was the only friend he had ever had who was nearly the same age as him. When his mother was still alive the other human children shunned him, his mother did her best to be both mother and playmate, but it still hurt that no other children wanted to play with him. Then when he was sold to the palace and taken to live with the slave master and his wife, it was very much the same thing. Yasha had spent most of his time either working with the slave master or in his house living a somewhat sheltered and isolated life. It was only when he became the property of his princess that he really got to play with another child. Yasha and his princess finally got to do all the silly things regular children took for granted. They played games, explored the castle, and pulled pranks on their tutors. Still Yasha always felt that his princess was not getting to do all the 'girlie' things she could do with her girl playmates.

Yasha was suddenly jerked out of his thoughts by a low rumbling. Quickly scanning the road for a possible threat he was stumped. He could sense nothing dangerous. No animals, no youkai, no humans, what was causing that ominous noise?

InuYasha had also immediately gone on alert when he heard the rumbling, unlike his very young counterpart, he knew exactly what it was and looking at the rocky crags that hung over the road he began to yell "Earthquake! Everyone try and take cover!" Grabbing Kagome off of her horse he barely noticed that she had instinctively clutched her bow, quiver and her saddle bag. Yasah immediately copied his older counterpart's action pulling his princess and her saddle bag off her horse. Yasah's inu instincts demanded that he follow the actions of the person he subconsciously considered his pack leader.

InuYasha had noticed that the road seemed to be a bit wider up ahead and he sprinted down the road, Kagome in his arms, closely followed by Yasha who held his princess.

As InuYasha ran, dodging rocks and small boulders that had started to rain down on the road; he continued to yell out instructions to the King's guard, who had formed a defensive perimeter around the King. Shields held high, the guards would try and protect the King with their bodies.

As the King's guards realized what the true threat was they began to move the King back down the road in the direction they had come from, not the direction InuYasha, Yasha and their charges were headed.

Finally the rumbling subsided, though the hail of rocks and boulders continued. The moment InuYasha put Kagome down she pulled Yasha and the princess towards herself and quickly erected her spiritual barrier. Under the protective shield of the barrier the little princess was distressed to realize that her father, the guards and the cart carrying Kaede, Tetsuya and Mikio were retreating in the opposite direction.

Then the unthinkable happened, with an ear splitting crack the entire mountain side began to slide down.

Still maintaining her barrier Kagome felt InuYasha pulling her, Yasha and the princess further up the road.

After what seemed to be an eternity the dust settled and where once a road neatly cut between two towering mountains, now an enormous unstable pile of rock and rubble towered hundreds of feet, blocking their way.

Fearing aftershocks and more rubble Kagome continued to maintain her barrier until she ran out of strength. InuYasha had continued to herd them further and further up the road, fearing that the unstable mass of rock might collapse at any moment.

Glancing at the little princess Kagome was worried, the child's father was somewhere on the other side of the now impassable road and there was no way to know if he or any of the others were safe.

Trying to take a positive attitude Kagome addressed her young counterpart. "It looked like everyone else had gotten pretty far back down the road."

Realizing that Kagome was trying to reassure the young princess InuYasha added "It was lucky for them that the mountains were sloping back fairly gently before this pass, there shouldn't have been much in the way of falling stuff where they were."

Suddenly InuYasha realized that everyone Kagome included was looking at him, he realized he was the alpha male and now in charge.

Looking at the huge unstable wall of rock, InuYasha immediately realized that even he would not dare to try and scale it. Deciding that he had to let everyone know just what the situation was he spoke "There is no way we can get back to the other side, not here at least. All that loose rock will be impossible to climb and unfortunately I don't have the ability to fly on my youki energy like my brother can. As I see it we have to keep going forward. There's bound to be another route back to the southern lands."

Glancing at Kagome InuYasha noticed that she was staring at the wall of rock and the surrounding mountains suspiciously. Realizing that InuYasha was staring at her Kagome decided to voice her suspicion. "I can't prove anything, but this all feels very – contrived. Here we are on a quest and now we have been quite conveniently separated from the rest of our party. It just feels like we've been set up."

Closing her eyes and stretching out her hands Kagome tried to see if she could sense any hostile forces. Finally she opened her eyes and declared. "I don't feel anything evil, but I almost can feel something, it's like a tickle in the back of my head, some sort of power. Perhaps this situation happened because we are supposed to be on our own when we find the relic."

Seeing that standing around was getting them nowhere InuYasha turned to look at his companions and spoke. "We'll the sooner we find that stupid relic the sooner we all get home. So let's get going."

InuYasha bent over so Kagome could climb onto his back, as he straightened up he looked over to see Yasha also bending over and within a moment his princess was also securely mounted on her hanyou's back.

With one last look behind them the foursome headed down the road.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Please note there was a big mix-up with chapters 10, 11, 12 & 13. I have deleted and reposted the all the correct chapters – sorry for the inconvenience! **

**Chapter 14 – On their own**

The now considerably smaller traveling party had made good time for the rest of the day, but InuYasha knew that Kagome and the princess would eventually need food and rest. The princess in particular needed to deal with her separation from her father and Kaede.

The landscape had once again started to change. The towering mountains were no longer barren rock, but lushly covered by forest. The road no longer cut through narrow barren canyons of rock but were sided by rocky hills, small meadows and stands of trees.

Smelling running water InuYasha veered off the road and soon led the group towards a small clearing near a small fast moving stream.

Instructing Yasha to guard the girls and trusting Kagome to start setting up camp InuYasha quickly circled the area double checking that there were neither youkai nor large animals in the vicinity.

InuYasha returned to the camp smiling, Kagome and the princess were inventorying the contents of their saddle bags. As he squatted down beside the girls he inquired "So what do we have to work with?"

Glancing at her mate Kagome smiled in response "Well the most important thing is that I had a copy of the full prophecy in my bag. If nothing else we can continue to follow the clues. The sooner we find the relic the sooner we can get the Princess and Yasha back home to their families." Seeing that she had everyone's attention she continued "In addition to the prophecy, the princess and I both have our bows and arrows, we have some extra clothes, a tiny bit of food, one very small cooking pot, one small canteen, and luckily our bedrolls were strapped onto the bags. Considering what happened we are in fairly good shape assuming you and Yasha can catch us some fresh meat."

Taking the hint InuYasha turned to his small counterpart and inquired "So do you know how to fish?"

Leading the young hanyou to the stream InuYasha proceeded to wade into the water indicating that Yasha should follow. As InuYasha proceeded to show Yasha how to catch fish with his bare hands the girls moved to watch the proceedings. Within minuets InuYasha had grabbed and flung two large fish onto the stream bank, not to be outdone Yasha was determined to show he could do anything his elder version could do. Scanning the water intently Yasha finally saw a huge fish that he was determined to grab and hold onto. Biting his lip the small hanyou concentrated and just as the fish neared his leg he punched his arm into the water, as his fingers brushed against the slippery scales of the fish he grabbed with his claw tipped fingers and within moments he had flung the fish onto the bank next to the ones InuYasha had caught.

Yasha's concentration was broken as he heard his princess squeal with delight and proclaim "Oh how wonderful, we're so lucky that we have two such cleaver men to hunt for us!"

Men? Yasha blushed; his princess thought he was a man? Smiling, InuYasha slapped his hand on his counterpart's back "Come on 'kid' we've got plenty for tonight and the first rule of hunting is you catch it, you clean it!"

A short while later InuYasha had shown Yasha how to clean and prepare the fish for cooking over an open campfire. That led to the next lesson, how to start a campfire with a bit of flint and sturdy claws. Yasha understood the reason for these lessons, if he and his princess became separated from InuYasha and Kagome it would be up to him to protect, care for and feed his princess.

The fish cooked quickly and soon all ate their fill. As their simple meal came to an end Kagome pulled out the prophecy and some notes she had made back in the capital.

Turning to gaze at her three companions Kagome began "Look we actually are in the right area to start looking. The prophecy said to look in the forests of the North and we are in the North and it looks like the forests are starting. The next point of the prophecy was that the sky would be dry, but water would fall like rain, that sort of phenomenon should be easy to recognize. I say we keep on the road, if we reach more forested land that's great, but if the road leads away from the forest, then I say we get off the road and follow the trees. Anyway, that's my opinion, what do the rest of you think?"

InuYasha and Yasha turned towards the little princess, who quickly spoke "I agree, that sounds like a good way to start. We are following the prophecy, but not committing ourselves too much. Also if what Kagome said back at the landslide is true, that the rock fall somehow was not natural, it could be that the prophecy will force us to take the correct path."

InuYasha nodded his agreement and added "That's a good course to take, but now we better get you two settled for the night before it gets too dark, I'll take the first watch and Yasha can relieve me later."

At these words Kagome immediately began to unroll her bedding, laying it out near the fire, she then turned to help the princess, but Yasha had already spread out his princess's bedding and was helping her get settled. Kagome noticed that InuYasha was also watching the pair, she caught her mate's eye and smiled, the children were so cute.

As Kagome crawled into her bedroll InuYasha quickly leaned over and gave her a quick kiss before settling down his back against a small boulder Tessaiga in his hands.

Yasha sat cross-legged next to his sleeping princess and sword in hand allowed himself to lightly doze. This was the first night that his princess would ever be sleeping without Kaede nearby and Yasha worried that she might not sleep well.

It was only a few hours before dawn when Yasha heard his name whispered; it was InuYasha calling from his place by the boulder. Yasha nodded indicating that he was awake and would take over the watch. He realized that InuYasha had been on watch for most of the night leaving himself only a few hours to get any rest.

As Yasha observed his elder version close his eyes and shift just a tiny bit closer to his mate he smiled, tomorrow night he would insist on the first watch and let InuYasha get a decent nights sleep.

The next morning the group quickly ate the leftover fish, packed their bags and started down the road, everyone walking side by side. After about an hour of walking InuYasha suggested that the girls climb on their hanyou's backs and let them run so that they could make better time towards the ever thickening forest.

As lunchtime approached InuYasha slowed down letting Kagome slide off his back to once again walk Yasha and the princess mimicking their elder's movements.

InuYasha had to be moving a bit slower so he could sniff and listen for the sound of what he hoped would be their lunch, but it was Yasah who surprised them, darting off the road to return a few moments later with a good sized rabbit dangling from his hand, it's neck neatly broken.

InuYasha was impressed, the kid learned fast. Turing to his younger version InuYasha commented "I guess you're in charge of lunch, you pick out the spot where we should stop and start the fire, if you don't know how to skin and dress the rabbit I'll show you."

A short while later as the rabbit cooked Kagome turned to the princess and advised her "Rest while you can, we'll be on the road till dinnertime."

True to her word Kagome was correct, InuYasha keeping them moving all through the afternoon only stopping as evening approached.

This time InuYasha was able to track a sounder of wild swine with a number of good sized piglets. InuYasha only had four to feed so he quickly snatched one of the piglets, moving away so fast and cutting the animal's throat so efficiently that the adult swine were not even aware of the hanyou's actions.

This time there was so much extra meat that Kagome gathered large leaves to wrap the cooked leftovers in; they would feed the group for not just breakfast, but also the next day's lunch.

As the sun set Yasha shivered, he did not feel the cold like a human would, but they were at a fairly high altitude and he was still going shirtless. He had been a bit chilled the night before, but as he sat near the fire he was able to sleep. This night the princess noticed her hanyou shiver and pulled out the black haori she had packed for him. Turning to her slave she handed him the haori and said "I am ordering you to put this on now and don't even think of protesting. I am not giving you a choice in this matter, you are my slave and I am telling you to put this on." Yasha sighed, he did not want to put on the haori, but it was chilly and he rationalized it was an order from his mistress, he had to obey.

As everyone settled in for the night Yasha insisted on taking the first watch, he would not let InuYasha stay up all night again. After a bit of protesting InuYasha gave in, knowing that unlike his younger version he always woke up several times during the night to make sure all was safe, he would only let little Yasha stay up part of the night.

After a fortunately uneventful night (InuYasha had relieved Yasha a little less than half the night through) the quartet set off once again. Since the road was heading into thicker and thicker forest the group saw no need to leave it.

The longer they traveled on the road, though, the more concerned they became. There was absolutely not traffic of any kind on this road. The princess had verified that this land of thick forests and towering mountains had very few inhabitants, as there was very little good farming land. As far as she knew her father had forbidden large scale deforestation. This had been his beloved Queen's dowry gift and he wanted it to remain just as it was when they wed. Still, the lack of any kind of traffic was unnerving.

Their concerns were answered when they were attacked by a large, but lower level youkai, some sort of lizard, not very intelligent, but huge. InuYasha dispatched the creature with a few passes of Tessaiga and they were once more on their way. Less than an hour later they were once again attacked, this time by a lower level youkai that looked like some sort of worm with feathers and a spiked tail; it was dispatched as easily as the first.

After a brief stop for lunch they were on their way again, and once again they were attacked by an unidentifiable low power youkai. InuYasha was starting to get fed up and after once again cleaning some sort of nasty ichor off of his blade he exploded "Well now we know why there's no one on the road. This forest is overrun with lesser youkai, what I don't understand is why I don't sense them until right before they attack. Kagome, you Yasha and I should all be able to sense them all over the place. Either all of our powers aren't working or something is masking all of these youkai's auras."

Once the group had placed some distance between themselves and the latest butchered youkai Kagome asked InuYasha to lower her once again to the ground so she could speak to her companions. "Listen I've been thinking about what InuYasha said; he's right we 'should' be able to feel all of these youkai except that I think I can feel something else. Don't know what it is, but these is something out here, it's not exactly like what I felt back at the landslide, this has more power, but I can not identify it. I definitely do not feel anything evil or for that matter good. There is something out here with power, but it is neutral and I think it is masking all of the youkai auras in the area. Do any of you feel anything?"

InuYasha and Yasha both stood still trying to feel what Kagome felt. After a few moments InuYasha's eyes grew wide and he nodded. "You're right, I can feel it now, but it's not a living presence. This feels more like a force of nature."

Yasha nodded his agreement adding "I think it's stronger in front of us, whatever it is we seem to be heading towards it. That could be why there have been more youkai attacks. Perhaps they are supposed to protect this power or they might just be attracted to it."

The princess was feeling a little left out since she could not sense youkai auras like everyone else and she idly wondered if she would one day develop spiritual powers like Kagome had. Still she was a princess and wanted to make sure her opinion was heard, so with a bit of bravado she proclaimed "Well then what are we waiting for, the faster we get to this source of power the sooner we get away from all of these pesky youkai."

Another hour of InuYasha and Yasha running at top speed with the girls on their backs saw the group entering a landscape of unsurpassed beauty. Tall thin mountains poked out of the dense woods in the distance, Kagome was struck at how much the landscape looked like a Chinese long painting.

The two hanyou finally slowed down when they began to hear the roar of a massive amount of water. Continuing at a slower rate they rounded a bend in the road and were stopped when they realized that the road seemed to lead right into an impossibly tall waterfall.

Looking up at the spectacle before them Yasha commented "The sky is dry, but water is falling like rain."

Unable to take their eyes off of the wonder everyone nodded in agreement.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Hi from the author - I just wanted to thank everyone who has been reading my story, I have noticed that there is quite an international group reading this and I am truly thrilled!

**Chapter 15 – The Other Side**

The rumbling and falling rock had finally stopped and the King pushed his way from under the protective shields of his soldiers. He looked around and was surprised to see Tetsuya, arms raised, a protective spiritual shield emanating from him. The King had no idea that Tetsuya had that sort of power, but he was thankful that the old sage had taken it upon himself to protect the entire group.

Looking up the road the King gasped. Where just moments before the road had cut through the mountains, now a pile of rubble and loose boulders towered up at least a hundred feet.

Somewhere on the other side of the now impassable pass was his only daughter. For reasons unknown InuYasha and Yasha had run up the road in the opposite direction from everyone else. How would he ever be able to get to her?

Pulling out of his reverie the King turned to check on the status of the rest of his party. Due to Tetsuya's protective shield there were no injuries.

Heading over to speak with the old sage the King was stunned when Tetsuya began to chuckle.

Outraged that the old sage found humor in the princess's separation from them the King angrily demanded "What do you find so humorous old man? My daughter is trapped somewhere on the other side of this mess; what do find so amusing?"

Wishing to mollify his liege Tetsuya quickly put out a pacifying hand and replied "My liege, I am sorry; I find no humor in your separation from your child. It is just that I have been waiting for this to happen, though I must admit even I was not expecting something so spectacular."

"What do you mean you were expecting this? Why didn't you warn us?" was the King's angry retort.

Tetsuya quickly continued "I am sorry I did not express myself clearly, I had no idea that there would be a landslide or anything of this nature. What I was expecting was that somehow, sometime, somewhere, we would be separated from the children. It really was to be expected. This is their quest, not ours. We would only get in the way of what must and should happen."

Noticing the skeptical (and angry) look on the Kings face the old sage quickly continued "Please sire, don't worry. I have every faith in InuYasha and Yasha's ability to protect your daughter. Before the mountain came down I had time to see that the young miko had already erected a protective barrier much like my own. I am sure your child is quite safe. I humbly suggest we return to the capital city. At this point all we can do is wait for their return."

The King was not happy, but old Tetsuya was right as usual, they would be of no help here. Sighing, the King turned and looked at the assembled party and in a voice loud enough for all to hear proclaimed "We shall start our return to the capital." Then turning to faithful Kaede he added "With any luck my child will return not long after we do."


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Once again I want to thank everyone who is reading the story not just in the U.S. but all around the world, I can't believe how many of you have marked this story as a favorite or asked for chapter notifications, I am really touched (and thrilled)!

Also a special shout out to whoever is reading this in Luxembourg – my mom was born right across the border in Trier!

**Chapter 16 – The Waterfall**

Practical as ever InuYasha was the first one to break the spell of the impossibly tall and beautiful waterfall. "Shit, I've never seen anything like this in all my years!"

Still awed by the sight the others could only nod in agreement.

The Kagome was the next to make a comment, thought in a totally different vein "Guys is it just me or is there lot of spiritual power coming from this waterfall?"

Yasha and InuYasha both looked oddly at Kagome with the younger hanyou's reply beating out his elder "It's not spiritual power its youkai power!"

Kagome looked from Yasha to her mate who nodded in agreement "He's right its youkai power, don't you sense the youki coming from the falls?"

Kagome shook her head "No not a bit of youki it's all regular human spiritual power. This is very odd, why do we sense different power?"

Not being able to sense powers the way all the others could the princess thought for a moment and then commented "Perhaps you are all sensing your own kind of power in the falls. You know, if you're a human you feel human power, if you're a youkai you feel youkai power and speaking of youkai, have you noticed that we have not been attacked all the time we have just been standing here!"

"Maybe all those lesser youkai were guarding this, or perhaps they are scared of it" was Yasha's thoughtful reply.

InuYasha, who was never terribly patient at the best of times, started to get antsy just standing staring at the magnificent falls finally voiced his opinion. "Listen, we can all stand here coming up with all sorts of ideas for the next week, but this waterfall must be the 'The sky is dry, but water falls like rain' that that Yasha mentioned before, the question is, are we supposed to follow this road that seems to lead right into the falls itself?"

Kagome finally decided to speak what she knew was on everyone's mind "Listen, we all know that we have to go forward, I say let's just go for it."

With that proclamation Kagome slowly continued down the road towards the falls, the three others quickly following.

Within moments the quartet realized that the road really did not lead directly 'into' the center of the falls, instead the road disappeared behind the nearly solid curtain of water.

As they approached the falling water InuYasha stopped and peered intently at an oddly shaped moss coved rock that lay just outside the deluge. Turning and motioning for the others to stop, he proceeded to scrape at the moss reveling weathered carved kanji. After a few moments of scraping the entire inscription was exposed.

Gathering around the now visible words Kagome took it upon herself to read them aloud for the group. "Enter these falls of immortality if you dare. Eternal life or instant death. Love is the key." Kagome took a deep breath and looked at her companions "Wow, do you think these falls really can grant immortality or death?"

InuYasha looked worried, they had to go through the falls to continue their quest, but how could he protect his charges from a magical waterfall? Turning towards the princess and Yasah he formulated his thoughts and then spoke "Listen, this could be dangerous and I don't feel Kagome and I have the right to push you into this - this magical waterfall. It could kill all of us instantly or only let some of us survive. If you don't want to go we will understand, we could continue on our own and come back and get you later. You could go back to that meadow by the brook and wait for us. I just want you to know your options."

The princess looked towards Yasha who nodded; he would do whatever his mistress wished. The princess looked steadily at InuYasha and replied "Wherever you go we go; we are just as committed to this quest as you are. We both knew that this quest would be dangerous, we're not stupid, quests would not be quests if they were safe. We're strong, we will make it through these falls and we will complete this quest!"

InuYasah smiled, they were young, but these kids had what it took. "OK, but once we get into these falls, I want to know instantly if anything feels wrong to you – do you understand?"

Both the princess and Yasha nodded in agreement. Then InuYasha took Kagome's hand and slowly walked into the dark passage that was open between the face of the cliff and the falling water that shrouded it.

Turning towards his mistress Yasha boldly took his princess's hand and quickly followed the older couple into the darkness.

Kagome was slightly relived, she feared the passage behind the water would be very dark, but the passage seemed to glow with an almost phosphorescent light. The walls were streaked with beautiful deep shades of blues, crysophase, and yellow. The light was bright enough that Kagome could clearly see InuYasha and the slightly damp path they were walking on. She was also surprised that the rushing water to her right was not louder; it seemed to whoosh by rather than make a crashing noise.

Kagome estimated that they were nearing the halfway point when InuYasha came to a stop. Directly before them the water seemed to be directed inward, causing a gentle but steady spray to fall directly onto the path they were treading.

Letting go of Kagome's hand InuYasha cautiously edged forward, stretching out his hand he felt the water. Looking back he commented "It just seems to be water, it's a little cold, but not bad and it's not coming down very hard, I don't think it should hurt any of us."

With that he entered the spray of water closely followed by Kagome, Yasha and the princess.

As they progressed into the spray, InuYasha still in the lead began to twitch his ears about as if he were listening for something. Worried Kagome inquired "Is there something wrong? Do you hear something?"

Pausing InuYasha replied "I don't know, but something feels odd, it's like – I don't know – I feel a little different, I can't put my finger on it. It's almost like I feel a little stronger or something."

Suddenly Kagome stopped, slapped her hand to her mating mark and yelped "Something's happening. My mark is tingling and it feels like something is entering me through my mark!"

InuYasha rushed to his mate's side and taking her hand worriedly inquired "Kagome are you alright?"

Quickly wanting to assure InuYasha she replied "I'm fine, no I'm better than fine, I feel great! I feel strong, I feel" suddenly Kagome's eyes grew wide "– oh dear Kami – I feel like I could live forever!"

The couple quickly turned to look at Yasha, who had reached the same spot as them. "How do you feel?" was InuYasha's worried inquiry.

Yasha seemed to stop and think for a moment before he answered "I feel great, really strong!"

Before Yasha could continue the princess cried out in pain and fell to her knees, clutching first her head and then her chest as she moaned "I'm being crushed, I can't breath!"

Immediately Yasha ran to his princess's side and pulled her into his arms before turning stricken eyes to his elders.

InuYasha had to think fast, turning towards Kagome he stated "Kagome, you said you felt like something was entering you through your mating mark, right?" At Kagome's quick nod he continued "What if these falls work via our youki, Yasha and I have lots of youki and you got some of mine when I marked you, but the princess doesn't have any youki at all. There's no way for this power to get into her, Yasha you have to mark her – right now!" At Yasha's confused look InuYasha quickly explained "You have to bite her on her neck, right at the pulse point – then she has to bite you on your pulse point so she gets some of your blood into her system - do it now!"

Looking at his dying mistress, Yasha immediately bent over his princess's neck and quickly bit her as InuYasha had instructed. The moment his teeth broke through her smooth flesh, the little princess's eyes popped open, InuYasha quickly moved to the children's side and pulling back Yasha's long hair cut into the child's neck, he then helped lift the princess's head so she could latch onto her slave's bleeding neck.

Kagome finally began to blush; the better part of a minuet had passed and the children had still not released each others necks. They seemed to be enjoying themselves a little too much. Deciding that they were much too young for this sort of thing to go on much longer the miko prodded her mate to separate the pair.

Grinning, InuYasha started to pull the pair apart. The princess and Yasha reluctantly released each others neck, both of them blushing furiously.

As Yasha helped his princess stand Kagome asked "How do you feel now? Do you still feel the pressure?"

The princess was still blushing, but replied "I feel great now, better than I've ever felt in my life, where Yasha bit me feels a little funny, it's all tingly like the water from the falls is trying to getting into me somehow - but what exactly did we do?"

Now it was InuYasha's turn to blush "I'm sorry I couldn't think of anything else to do, Kagome said she felt the power going into her through her mating mark, so I had Yasha mark you, you're sort of – mated now." At the children's panicked looks he quickly added "You're way too young to really be mates, so till you're older, it's like you're engaged only it's an engagement that can never be broken. I'm afraid your father will have to give up his plans of marrying you off to some prince. Like I said, I'm sorry, I was afraid you would die if we didn't do something fast."

The little princess began to walk forward, then turned, smiled and stated "I think this was supposed to happen, the inscription outside said 'Love is the Key'. I knew someday Yasha and I were supposed to be together like the two of you, now my father can't ever separate us. I wonder, though, since this is called 'the falls of immortality' are we now all immortal?"


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's note: I hope this chapter isn't too confusing, but I wanted to try and give a rational explanation for what just happened previously.

**Chapter 17 – Reflections on immortality**

The quartet quickly traversed the remainder of the falls without incident, exiting into what appeared to be a heavily wooded valley.

Since all four of them were still rather shaken by their experiences, InuYasha quickly found a small dry cave near a pond, and declared that they would already be stopping for the night.

Since they still had cooked meat from InuYasha's last kill, they quickly started a small fire and started to eat dinner.

Yasha and the princess were unusually quiet, especially the princess. While Yasha was normally quiet and unobtrusive, the princess always chatted with Kagome during their meals. Now, however, the princess was just picking at her food and surreptitiously looking at Yasha.

Unable to stand the little princess's abnormal mood any longer Kagome gently inquired "Princess are you really OK? I know it's a lot to take in all at one time, but you and Yasha don't have to do anything about being mated for lots and lots of years. Or is it the immortal part that's worrying you?"

The princess finally looked up at Kagome, then back to Yasha and replied "Both I guess, just what does it mean if we are immortal? Can we still be killed, and will Yasha and I finish growing up?"

InuYasha decided that he was marginally the best qualified to answer the princesses concerns "Well, if this immortality is like that of most full blooded youkai, yes you will finish growing up normally. Actually Yasha and I might have already been immortal, it's hard to tell, almost no hanyou ever make it to adulthood so we might have been immortal or we might just have had a very long life span, there really is no way for us to know now. Anyway, you should grow up normally till you're about 17 or 18, then you should stop aging. I know some full blooded youkai, who started to look older at some point in their life, but they really were not aging, it was all looks. The important thing to remember is that you can be killed. If someone cuts your head off – you will die! We know Yasha heals from his wounds just like me, almost like a youkai, but there is no way to know how you, princess, or Kagome will heal. You may heal fast like a youkai or hanyou or you may still have the slow healing time of a regular human. If you heal like a human, it would be very easy for you to be killed; your immortality would be of little help. Until something happens to one of you there will be no way for us to know about your healing speed, and to be honest I'm in no rush to find out."

Kagome was impressed, InuYasha was more of the one word answer type of person, he had just given, what was for him, a major speech.

The little princess nodded in understanding and then mused "What I still don't understand is, when we were outside the falls InuYasha and Yasha felt youkai power and you Kagome felt human spiritual power, but InuYasha said he thought the power came into us via youkai power."

Kagome smiled and eagerly replied "I've been thinking about that and here's what I think may be the answer. First off Yasha and InuYasha do you feel any youki energy coming off of me or the princess?"

InuYasha shook his head "No different than before, your human spiritual powers have always overshadowed any youkai power that might have gotten into you when we mated and I still don't feel any youki coming from you. As far as I could tell the princess had no particular power before, though now she seems to have a decent amount of human spiritual energy. By the way Yasha's youki does not seem any different to me than it was before."

Kagome nodded "Exactly, now I think the immortal energy itself is neutral, neither human spiritual, nor youki. You just said yourself that you and Yasha might already have been immortal or at the least very long lived, so your youkai energy had no problem incorporating this 'immortal energy' into itself. I on the other hand have plenty of human spiritual power, but it has no immortal or long life attributes. In order for the immortal powers to get into me, they had to use a path that was compatible with it. My mating mark, which is the place where your youki entered my system, was the most direct entry point; once this power had a path to follow it was able to incorporate itself with my human spiritual powers. In the same way, once the princess had a mating mark the immortal energy had a path to follow, but since she is human, it immediately transformed into human spiritual power."

Noticing the somewhat glazed looked on everyone's faces she quickly added "It's just a theory and the important thing is that we are all OK."

Glancing at the two children Kagome realized that it would take some time for them to get used to all of the changes that had just been forced upon them. In the space of a few moments they had marked each other as mates and become quite probably immortal. Not to mention the fact the princess now possessed spiritual powers. They both looked exhausted and scared. Going into mothering mode Kagome decided to take charge proclaiming "OK it's getting late and you two need to get some sleep, InuYasha will take the first watch so let's get your bedding set up."

As he did every night Yasha got his princess's bed roll set up for her and the princess almost immediately crawled under the top blanket. Yasha couldn't understand why, but he was so tired that he did not argue with the adults and curled up on the cold cave floor next to his princess.

Kagome shook her head at the little hanyou and took the blanket from her own bedding to cover the child. She knew that Yasha was as hardy as InuYasha, but marking a mate even without the actual mating was exhausting and the child needed some quality rest. Yasha of course protested, thrusting the blanket back at Kagome proclaiming that he didn't need a blanket and Kagome did. Yasha's arguing roused the little princess who turned and holding up the edge of her blanket sleepily mumbled "Yasha, just come here and go to sleep." Yasha quickly wiggled closer to his princess who flipped half of her blanket over the little hanyou; within minuets the two children were fast asleep.

As the children slept, Kagome sat next to InuYasha, who wrapped his arm around his mate and bent to kiss the mating mark on Kagome's neck. Smiling Kagome rested her head on InuYasha's shoulder and whispered "They are so cute together, but I hope they wait till they're older, 17 or 18, to finish up with the mating."

InuYasha smirked "If they don't it won't be his fault" at Kagome's confused and somewhat annoyed look he quickly continued " Well it's not like he'll be like a 17 or 18 year old human male, even without the immortality he would have aged a little differently than a human. At the age of 17 he can mate if he wants to, but he will not be a crazy teenager, like a human. That really never happened to me, I think that I aged too slowly to go through all that crap. Now that the princess may be immortal perhaps she'll be spared all that human teen crap."

"What do you mean 'human teen crap' I was a human teen when I met you and we defeated Naraku!" was Kagome's whispered indignant reply.

"Well you were a little tough on me, always 'sitting' me for every little thing. I always thought that you did that to me because you were so young and emotional. You really are a lot calmer now, much more adult." InuYasha whispered; he hoped Kagome was adult enough now to hear the truth. "Not that I was acting all that adult either." The hanyou quickly added.

At Kagome's confused look InuYasha sighed and continued "Come on you were always complaining how childish I acted and it's true, I was acting childish. I had lived alone for almost my whole life and then I spent 50 years pinned to a tree in an unnatural sleep, I was really messed up. It wasn't till we defeated Naraku and I was living a more stable life in the village that I really learned how to interact with others. Kaede really helped me learn all the social crap that I never needed living alone. I really owe her a lot."

Feeling a little ashamed Kagome had to admit "You're right I really petty with my 'sitting'* you all the time, and I never made any allowance for your upbringing. I don't know how you put up with me. I guess I really was a crazy teenager."

InuYasha just smiled and kissed Kagome gently and whispered "It's getting late, why don't you put your bedding here next to me and get some sleep."

The next evening as Kagome ate her dinner she reflected on the day and had to repress her laughter. The little princess and poor Yasha had been so stiff and formal with each other. For all of their talk of being in love with each other and wanting to run off together, they were still very young children and the reality that they really would be together at some point in the future was a bit too much for them to handle.

Even InuYasha had been unexpectedly nice to the children. Not pushing them too hard and letting everyone rest as much as they wanted.

Deciding that everyone needed a distraction from the previous day's events, Kagome pulled out the prophecy and invited everyone to help figure out what would be the next challenge they would face.

Scanning over the manuscript Kagome commented that they should ignore everything that came before the 'The sky is dry, but water is falling like rain' as they all agreed that they had already passed that point.

Kagome moaned, "Crap, this is that passage that I really hate - I could swear I've read a book with some of these words in the title, it wasn't a Japanese story – anyway it's 'over hill and under stone'** then 'two as one, two as one, but not alone' as far as I can tell we will have to climb a mountain and go through a tunnel or cave – so that means lots more travel, unless we find a very small hill and a very small tunnel. It also says two as one twice so that must refer to InuYasha and me and Yasha and you princess. Since you are now referred to as 'two as one', it must mean that the prophecy knew you two would become bonded to each other. The part I do not understand yet is the 'but not alone' part. I guess someone will join our group at some point. When all of this stuff happens then I guess we will be ready for the next part of the prophecy to take place."

Eager to be off of the subject of her recent mating and immorality, the princess commented "I wonder if it's any use for us to even bother with any of later part of the prophecy till we get to that point. As far as I can tell some parts are so minor as to have no impact on what we are doing and others a major impact, but they both look and sound equally important when you read them. We now have a warning that we may be covering a lot of ground and we may end up meeting with or even traveling with someone, but I bet it will be useless for us to try and anticipate anything further in the future. I don't know why, but I get this feeling that trying to outguess the prophecy will backfire on us."

Kagome nodded her agreement adding "I think you're right, everything seems to have been happening to us without us planning it. The prophecy only seems to be confirming that we are on the right track. I say we should just go on, do what seems to be the right thing, confirm with the prophecy that we are still moving forward, and always take the next part of the prophecy with a grain of salt. It might be important, but then again it might be trivial. The important part of the passage we have been studying might be the 'over hill and under stone' part, but then again the important part might be meeting this new person. There's just no way to tell."

Ever practical InuYasha concluded "Well if we don't get some sleep, we won't be getting up tomorrow and we'll never get to the hill, the tunnel or the stranger!"

InuYasha once again insisted on the first watch and just as he did the night before Yasha curled up next to his princess only to find himself covered by half of her blanket.

* In Japanese "Osuwari" is the word "sit" only said to command a dog (this is the word Kagome uses to control InuYasha in the manga), suwatte kudasai (sit please) or the command suwarinasai would be used to ask or tell a human (person) to sit. In this sentence Kagome is using the proper 'human' word so InuYasha is not pulled down.

** Kagome has gotten confused, the story she is thinking of is 'Over sea, under stone' by Susan Cooper – perhaps she her Japanese translation was off!


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: A continued thank you to everyone who is reading my story, I am amazed at how many people have marked it for updates or even as a favorite story!

I also want to explain that at some point in the story (I can't remember when) I decided to use the word youki to describe the 'power' and youkai to refer to the actual beings, so youkai would be used like the word human and youki would parallel human spiritual power. Lots of other writers use the words this way and I find it makes aspects of the story a little easier to follow.

**Chapter 18 – A Lesson**

The next day, as the group followed the road, they traveled over many hills, but no caves or tunnels were evident.

As the day wore on the princess wondered, since she now had a small amount of youkai blood did she gain any youkai powers? Voicing her thoughts she addressed Kagome "Kagome I've wondered, Yasha and InuYasha are very similar in their powers and everything, but you're a powerful miko and I have no powers at all. I wonder are we so different."

Kagome smiled, she had thought about this very question since she had met her counterpart. "You have to remember princess, that I did not gain any of my powers until I traveled back to InuYasha's time and broke the Shikon No Tama. I do not know if I only got my powers due to the Shikon No Tama being in my body for so long or if they developed naturally and just happened to come out when I turned 15. However, you got a dose of spiritual energy from the waterfall and a little youkai blood from Yasha, not to mention being partly mated to him so you may already have gained some powers. The first thing I really noticed when my powers started to emerge was that I could sense youki and spiritual powers. All three of us have these powers so when we stop tonight I'll start to test you."

The princess was happy, she had been feeling a little inferior (a situation she was not at all used to) being the only one in their group with absolutely no 'powers'. Even if she gained only a tiny bit of spiritual or youki power it would make her feel somewhat more in control. Realizing that she had never replied to Kagome she quickly smiled and added "Thank you, I really want to see if I have gained any powers, I don't want to be a burden on everyone."

Kagome could only shake her head realizing that both the princess and Yasha never seemed to act like children. The little princess was already burdened with the knowledge that her future was not in her own hands and Yasha was generally somber knowing that his own life belonged to others to do with as they wished.

Kagome smiled inwardly, after all the children had just been through they really needed some time to play and forget that they were not just fated to be mates, but quite probably immortal. Glancing at her own mate Kagome decided to have a word with InuYasha later so that they could set up some sort of situation where the children could, for once, just act like children.

When InuYasha spotted a good resting place, near one of the ever present streams that seemed to cover the countryside, Kagome found her chance to talk to her mate in private for a moment. InuYasha had asked Yasha to check the stream to see if there were any fish, as the little hanyou left the group, the little princess followed. Seizing her chance Kagome quickly whispered "InuYasha, I think the kids really need to be children for a bit, they've had so much happen to them so fast. I don't like how adult they're forcing themselves behave. When you see an opportunity, try to set something up where they can have some fun, even if it's only for a few minutes."

InuYasha nodded his agreement "You're right, they act so grown up all the time. I think I have an idea."

Turing towards the stream where the two children were standing InuYasha called out "Yasha, Princess, you two are in charge of getting us lunch. Yasha, it might be good for you to show the princess how to catch fish, it might come in handy. Kagome and I will gather firewood and start the fire. I'm pretty hungry so I think at least one good sized fish for each of us will do, but get more if you can."

With that InuYasha quickly turned away from the two youngsters and taking Kagome's hand led her towards a stand of trees to ostensibly look for firewood. Once he reached the first of the trees, InuYasha stopped and he and Kagome settled down to watch Yasha give his princess a fishing 'lesson'.

At first Yasha intended on doing all of the 'fishing', his princess could sit on the bank of the stream and watch. It would not be proper for his princess to demean herself with common work such as gathering food.

Unfortunately for Yasha his princess had different ideas. Within a few moments the princess had shed her outer kimono to reveal that she wore Chinese style silk trousers and a simple short silk kimono style shirt. Taking off her shoes and rolling up the legs of her trousers she waded into the stream next to her slave and mate and hands on her hips demanded "Well Yasha are you going to show me how to fish or not?"

InuYasha and Kagome had a hard time not laughing out loud. For the last half hour poor Yasha had been trying to teach his princess how to fish just using her hands. By the time the young hanyou had caught enough fish to feed their group the two children were thoroughly soaked as the princess had slipped and grabbing her mate had pulled poor Yasha into the stream with her. Within a few moments the two children were splashing water on each other and for once were behaving like the small children they really were.

Satisfied that their two little companions were finally having some fun, InuYasha quickly gathered some wood and started a fire so they would be able to dry the children off properly as well as cook their lunch.

Noticing that a fire had been started Yasha and his princess waded out of the stream and Yasha then proceeded to show his mate how to clean fresh fish. The princess apparently did not have the same enthusiasm for fish cleaning as she did for fishing, so after Yasha had cleaned the first fish she commented "Since I can't shake myself dry like you can I'm still all wet, why don't you finish cleaning the fish while I go and start to get dried off." Yasha only smirked as his princess bid a hasty retreat towards the fire, she might say she wanted to pull her weight like everyone else, but apparently that did not include gutting fish!

Before long, the children were dry; the left over fish packed up for later and the group was once again on the road.

Noticing that the road was beginning to climb up a rather tall hill, the two hanyou decided to carry their human companions on their backs. When the road began snaking sharply upwards hugging the side of a sheer wall of rock the princess was glad she was being carried by her sure footed hanyou. The only problem was that she was starting to get a little stiff. Hoping to stretch her neck a little the little princess tipped her head back and opening her eyes wide and gave a very unladylike squeal, exclaiming "Everyone, stop and look up!"

Kagome riding as she was on InuYasha's back was the first to obey the little princess, what she saw made her gasp. The tall hill they were climbing, rather than narrowing as it rose towards its peak seemed to flair out several hundred feet over their heads. Instead of blue sky over their heads, there was a solid rock overhang. They were going over a hill and were technically under stone.

Turning towards her wide eyed companions, the princess commented "Well I guess we will be meeting up with someone soon. So we better get going or we might miss them!"

Nodding InuYasha turned and resumed his fast pace up the steep road followed by Yasha.

As Kagome continued to look overhead she realized that the odd overhang was only a hundred meters long or so. If the princess had not looked up at just the right moment they never would have seen that they had indeed been traveling over a hill and under stone at the same time! Kagome also realized that the road they traveled on only seemed to hug the edge of the tall hill and once past the outcropping was starting to descend back to the flat forested terrain they had been traversing for the last few days. She wondered - did the road take this odd route just to satisfy their prophecy?

As if to confirm Kagome's suspicions the rest of the afternoon passed without the slightest sign of any other living beings higher up the evolutionary ladder than some small birds and the occasional rabbit. Each time the group rounded a bend in the road they half expected to encounter someone, but finally as the sun began to set they decided to make camp and once again let the prophecy set it's own pace.

All things considered, Kagome was more than happy that InuYasha had found a camping spot adjacent to a small hot spring, fully intending on taking full advantage of the hot water bubbling so temptingly nearby. Kagome immediately set her plan in motion by the not so subtle but expedient plan of immediately stripping and as quickly as possible getting into the spring.

Poor Yasha turned bright pink and quickly spun around as soon as he realized what Kagome was up to, InuYasha just rolled his eyes when he realized Kagome was going to strip right there, that was until the little princess decided to emulate her counterpart and also started to strip. Then it was InuYasha's turn to blush and quickly turn. It was one thing to watch his own mate strip, quite another to see her pre-pubescent counterpart shed her clothes.

After what seemed like an eternity InuYasha heard two splashes and Kagome's laughter as she instructed "It's OK now, we're both decently submerged! If you promise to behave you both can even join us."

The two hanyou turned around, but in a show of solidarity both declined the miko's offer and instead InuYasha declared "Why don't you two take your time, we'll get dinner ready and we will take a quick bath later."

After Kagome and the Princess had lounged enough to start pruning they both decided it was time to reluctantly emerge from the hot spring. They were both more than pleasantly surprised to discover that InuYasha and Yasha had set up a cozy campsite and had even caught another small piglet, but what really impressed the girls was the fact that while they had set a good portion of the piglet to roast they had also cut up some meat with some root vegetables they had managed to find and were cooking a thick soup or stew in their small pot.

Kagome could not contain herself and wrapping her arms around her mate kissed him soundly exclaiming "InuYasha you're so sweet, thank you I was really getting tired of grilled fish!"

Blushing InuYasha quickly replied "Well Yasha did as much as I did, it was no big deal, if you like I can let you know when I sniff out edible roots or berries, I know you can't exclusively live off of meat like Yasha and me."

After everyone had a hearty meal the Princess remembered the conversation she and Kagome had had earlier that day and inquired "Kagome you said you would test me to see if I was developing any spiritual powers, can we start now?"

Kagome smiled at her young counterpart, she remembered how inadequate she felt when InuYasha and she had first started their quest, she has no controllable powers and could not even shoot her bow with any accuracy, so she more than understood the Princess's desire to be a little more like everyone else in their small group.

Kneeling across from the little Princess Kagome thought for a moment and then instructed "Princess the first thing I want you to do is clear your mind, like you're going to meditate, but instead of looking inward I want you to start to look outward with your mind. Try not to get caught up with outside stimuli, remember you're trying to sense our auras. Just close your eyes and tell me everything you feel."

Obeying the little Princess closed her eyes and began to clear her mind "Kagome I don't feel anything." was the Princess's immediate statement.

"Don't worry, I didn't expect you to feel anything the first second you started to meditate." was Kagomes reassuring reply, thinking quickly she then added "pretend you are looking for Yasha, but only using your mind."

Once again the Princess cleared her mind but this time she pretended she was looking for Yasha, and then it happened, she thought she could feel 'something'. Excited she whispered "I think I feel something, but I can't describe it, it's like I can feel Yasha next to me, but I can also feel something almost exactly the same, but stronger, nearby."

Kagome smiled and replied "I think you're starting to feel youki auras, what you are feeling is Yasha's aura, and the other stronger one you feel is InuYasha's, they are almost identical, InuYasha's is stronger because he is so much older and therefore, more powerful than Yasha. Now I want you to look for me with your mind. Remember my energy will feel rather different than Yasha's and InuYasha's, they have youkai auras and mine is human."

Nodding her understanding the little Princess once again cleared her mind and began to 'look' for Kagome.

After several moments the Princess began rather hesitantly "I think can feel you, you're energy is so different, it's much more powerful, but at the same time tamer?"

Kagome actually laughed "Quite correct, very good! My power really is not that much stronger than InuYasha's, but as a human it is more controlled. You have to remember Yasha and InuYasa's powers come from their youki, and well to put it bluntly their youki is not even remotely human. However, as you become more used to sensing auras you will realize how much wilder most other animal youkai are. Yasha and InuYasha are inu and therefore, as much as they don't like to admit it, not technically 'wild', not like a tiger or bear youkai is."

"What the hell are you talking about! You better not be implying that we are 'domesticated' inu! We are just as wild as every other animal youkai I'll have you know!" was InuYasha's not unexpected retort.

Kagome had to control herself from rolling her eyes "No my dear mate I was not implying that you were 'domesticated' I just meant that inu youkai are more civilized than most other animal youkai. I mean, look at your brother, he lives in a beautiful castle and dresses in silk, while Kouga and his wolf pack live in caves and dress in animal skins. Inu are just naturally more sophisticated. Anyway back to you, Princess, the more you try and feel for auras the more you will notice them without thinking about it, it will eventually become second nature. Oh and before I forget, you will also be able sense elemental based youkai and even gods and demi-gods. Despite the fact that they all have different powers, once you have the ability to feel auras, you will be able to feel them all."

The poor Princess was still trying to absorb everything she has just learned and felt. She realized with a start that she never really thought about that fact that her Yasha was part inu, for the most part he acted like a human, but then he really had never lived with youkai. She also wondered what an elemental youkai would feel like so she finally asked "Just what does an elemental feel like, if they are not animal based and not human?"

Kagome thought a bit, but before she could formulate a reply InuYasha interjected "They feel different - have you ever felt the power of a storm approaching? It's sort of like that; they feel wild, but not really alive. Oh, and don't worry about feeling a Kami's aura, they are so powerful you really can't mistake it for anything else, it will almost hit you in the head, even the most powerful youkai does not have that feeling of 'pure' power that a Kami has. Don't sweat it too much, like Kagome said, now that you have felt human, and in our case, hanyou auras you won't be able to stop, it's like seeing or hearing, once you know how to do it, it will become second nature."

Deciding that the little princess had done enough mental work for one night Kagome quickly resumed "Right, I think that's enough for one lesson, why don't we all turn in for the night. We can do some more work on this tomorrow and perhaps we'll finally get to meet whoever we're supposed to meet."


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Chapter 19 – Tsuru**

Even InuYasha had to admit the little Princess was rather cute. As they traveled down the road she insisted on walking so she could practice sensing auras and the hanyou had to admit to himself that she had some real talent. Twice the Princess had correctly sensed a low level youkai that was nearby, she had become quite excited and everyone had made sure to compliment her growing talent. Privately InuYasha thought the Princess was actually making much better progress than Kagome had when she first discovered her powers. As a young girl Kagome did not possess the same single minded drive that the Princess possessed, not that it was her fault. Kagome came from a time when children were not put under the same pressures as they were in a feudal era. After Kagome's return to feudal times InuYasha had been curious and asked her why she had seemed so much younger than the 15 year old girls of Kaede's village. Kagome had explained that for the vast expanse of history children had been seen as miniature adults and were treated as such. A 15 year old girl in feudal times was already an adult. It was only in modern times that children were treated as well – children.

As the morning progressed they started to make a game of it, find the youkai. If there were no youkai in the area InuYasha or Yasha would run off the road into the forest and the Princess would identify where they were.

Finally tiring of their new game InuYasha suggested "How about we start looking for a good spot to have lunch?"

No sooner than the words had left his lips than the little Princess cried out "Youkai, a bunch of them headed our way and they feel fairly strong!"

Instantaneously, InuYasha, Yasha, Kagome, and the Princess assumed battle stances and within moments even the humans could hear the sound of bodies crashing through the underbrush of the forest.

The sounds of running bodies got closer and suddenly a tall lanky figure stumbled out of the trees and onto the road.

He was obviously a youkai, well over six feet tall with long thin legs, and the ends of his feathery pure white hair was tipped in the deepest black.

Immediately sensing InuYasha as the strongest he stumbled towards the wary hanyou and falling to his knees begged "Please mighty one, they will kill me! They are animals with no reason. Please help me!"

No sooner had the words left the terrified youkai's lips than three huge snake youkai slithered onto the road. Despite being low level youkai and therefore without humanoid appearance, the snakes were physically powerful, at least as wide as cows, the largest snake was at least fifteen feet in length.

Snorting his derision of the three snakes, InuYasha leapt into the air drawing Tetsuiga and swinging the massive fang in a graceful arc, sliced two of the hissing heads off before landing once again on the road.

Not to be outdone Yasha rushed the remaining youkai, but lacking his elder counterpart's massive weapon he had to content himself with slicing at the snake with his sword. Realizing that the youkai snake's scaly body was too tough for his human made weapon the boy switched to a much more deadly weapon – his claws. As Yasha sliced at the massive creature he realized that its scales formed a very tough armor, he sighed realizing that killing this beast would be a very messy business, but before he could get in more than a few swipes he heard Kagome yelling "Yasha move out of the way – now!" Instantly obeying the powerful miko, Yasha leapt back and witnessed a bright pink arrow wiz by, striking the snake square in his open snarling mouth. The snake did not even have time to bellow his outrage before he was turned into pile of dust.

Returning immediately to the side of his princess Yasha took time to observe the now much calmer youkai they had rescued.

The youkai was dressed in white silk haori and hakma which like his hair was edged in black. Tall and thin, he was surprisingly graceful; his features were sharp, but still handsome.

Bowing profusely towards the four travelers the youkai quickly began "Thank you mighty warriors, those horrible snakes have been chasing me all morning!"

Confused, InuYsha interjected "But you're a bird youkai, why didn't you take your true form and fly to safety?"

Blushing the youkai continued "It's a bit of a story, but if you don't mind I'd really like to get away from those dead snakes."

Nodding InuYasha agreed adding "We were just going to look for a place to have lunch. Lets get down the road a bit and then you can tell us what happened to you and what you're doing here."

After traveling down the road several miles Yasha split from the group to scout out a good resting spot. Within a few minutes he had returned and soon the entire group was sitting in an easily defended meadow eating lunch.

As the strange youkai stuffed a large piece of fish in his mouth he began "Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Tsuru and I as you can see I am a crane youkai. Unfortunately, I fell in love with the daughter of a powerful sorceress, a marten youkai, who did not like the idea of her daughter mating with a bird youkai. She seems to be of the opinion that species should not mix and worst of all is the mixing of mammals with non mammal youkai. She transported me via sorcery to this forest and then froze me in my human form, I can't change into my true form and I can't access most of my youki! I have to break this spell and get back to my love! Knowing her mother she'll try and mate my beautiful Kayo to some horrid marten lord!"

By now Tsuru was practically wringing his long fingered hands. Soft hearted Kagome took pity on the distraught youkai and interjected "We are on a quest, but we'll try to get you some help."

InuYahsa on the other hand was not as open minded and asked "I can't believe a full youkai, even one under a spell, would be willing to take aid from two hanyou and two humans."

Confused Tsuru commented "I don't understand, I may not be able to access much of my youki, but even I can sense your power, it's overwhelming! Even the little one has more power than most full grown youkai, more than I will ever posses; what are you, Inu? Not to mention the miko, she turned that snake to dust with one arrow, that sort of power is amazing!"

InuYasha just shrugged and Kagome smiled adding "Yes Inuyasha and Yasha are both Inu hanyou, their father was one of the most powerful youkai to ever live, and they are both powerful in their own right, but most youkai look down on them because they're hanyou."

Tsuru merely nodded and quietly stated "We cranes rarely meddle in the affairs of others, but humans have always revered us, so we have always had good relations with them. To tell the truth I have never met a hanyou before, but I too am currently the victim of youkai prejudice. As a full blooded crane youkai I never experienced this sort of thing before, but I understand it now and once I get my powers back I intend on trying my best to change things. It's terrible to be judged by what you are and not who you are."

Sighing InyYasha scratched the back of his head and commented "Well, we can't stop our own quest to help you, we are following a prophecy, but luckily for you, you actually seem to be part of the prophecy."

At Tsuru's confused look Kagome began to fill the crane youkai in on all that had happened starting with the old exorcist and their transportation to this parallel world through their discovery of the prophecy and the quest they must follow.

The Princess then took over and informed the now thoroughly confused youkai that they knew they were going to meet someone and that he must be part of their quest, concluding " I bet if you come with us not only will you be able to help us, but we will be able to help you!"

Soon, the now larger group was again on the road. After walking several miles Tsuru ventured "I've been thinking about everything you told me and to be honest some things actually seem to make sense. I knew that Kayo's mother did not approve of me, but her reaction really seemed rather over the top and then on top of taking away my powers she transported me all the way out here to the forest. Even at the time I thought bringing me here was rather odd. If she wanted to show Kayo how weak I was, why bring me here where no one would be able to see me in this weakened state? Now poor Kayo is probably just worried sick about me, which I know is not at all what her mother wanted. I wonder if this was all planned out somehow. Not by a person I mean, but by fate. Anyway, I think what I am trying to say is that I believe that you are right, I am here because I am supposed to be here, somehow I have to help all of you and if I do help you, I believe I will ultimately benefit from it."

After mulling over Tsuru's conjectures the little Princess ventured "I don't know about anyone else, but I agree with Tsuru, that his joining us seems to make sense. I think you're here to help us complete our quest."

After a few more moments Kagome added "I get the same feeling. It's like that 'oh so convenient' rock slide that cut us off from everyone. We are being pushed along on this journey, everything that at first seems like an obstacle is in fact a big help. The rock slide, the waterfall and now meeting Tsuru, I think all of these things are speeding us along and I think things are going to start to progress even faster now that Tsuru is here with us. With any luck we will all be going home soon, including Tsuru."

Then under her breath, so quietly that even her mate could not hear it, Kagome added "I've already got a faithful dog and now we're traveling with someone who is scarecrow thin, if a wicked witch or tin woodsman show up I am so out of here."

Not catching his mates sarcastic comment InuYasha could only shake his head and mumble "I just hope you are all right, cause I'm really not in the mood for another long drawn out adventure."

Glancing at the obviously impatient hanyou, Tsuru smirked and replied "I fervently hope you are right. I for one can not wait to get my powers back and if helping all of you gets me back to normal, and back to my beautiful Kayo then lets get on with it!"


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Sorry about this chapter being so short!

Again many thanks to everyone who is reading my story – hope you are still enjoying it – reviews or comments are always welocome!

**Chapter 20 – Tsuru's Tsuris***

Walking down another boring stretch of road, Tsuru sighed for what he estimated was the hundredth time since he had joined the odd questors. Almost a week had gone by since his rescue and while the band had made steady progress over the mostly even terrain, there was absolutely no progress in their search for the elusive - "whatever it was" – they were looking for. Not to mention the "crown" the little princess pursued. All in all Tsuru, along with everyone else, was frustrated beyond measure.

At least the evenings were not too boring, Kagome had been persuaded by the two children to retell the story of the Shikon No Tama and Tsuru was fascinated. This tiny miko, her young hanyou (not that he would ever be so rude as to ask, but the boy could not be much over 200), a lecherous cursed monk, a young female demon slayer, and a kitsune kit had taken on and ultimately destroyed an unimaginably evil being. Kagome was telling them the story in great detail, one sub adventure each evening and the girl could have made a living as a professional storyteller her skill at making her story come to life was so great. What was almost more unbelievable than the battle against the evil Naraku was the fact that the Inu hanyou had managed to cut the arm off of his brother, the great and powerful Lord Sesshomaru. Even if his alternate universe version of the terrible Inu Lord was only a faction as powerful as the one who lived in this world, InuYasha's feat of slicing the great Lord's arm off – while in his true form no less – was truly mind boggling.

Unfortunately, good stores were not getting them any close to their ultimate goal, not to mention getting Tsuru his powers back. Even their ever vigilant study of the prophecy was getting nowhere. From the moment of his arrival Tsuru's very presence seemed to put an end to the prophecy's usefulness. Every line of the prophecy following the arrival of their new traveling companion seemed to be useless; lots of mumbo jumbo about fate and destiny, but absolutely nothing that could guide or help in any manner. Tsuru felt guilty as if his very presence was causing their lack of progress, and so Tsuru sighed once again.

The only even vaguely interesting occurrence happened the day before; the band had come across a tiny abandoned village (if it could be called such). The village consisted of five or six small dilapidated huts, a barely useable bath house and most importantly an abandoned smithy.

After rummaging around the smithy for a bit InuYasha came out brandishing a serviceable short sword which he presented to Tsuru commenting "At least you have a chance of defending yourself now. Even without your normal powers you have a long reach and should be able to inflict some sort of damage with this – it's not a half bad sword."

Tsuru nodded in agreement, despite his human appearance, he was in reality a bird with hollow bones made for flying and he certainly did not have the impressive claws or fangs of the Inu hanyous, but he was very tall and had very long arms so he did have a natural advantage when it came to close combat, if only in the advantage of his long reach.

After utilizing the bath house and spending the night in the least damaged of the huts the band was once again on the road the next morning. The only thing interrupting their progress was the Princess's insistence that Yasha and she give the now armed bird youkai some practical sword fighting lessons. Noticing the older hanyou's impatience Tsuru suggested that they hold off on his lessons till they stopped for lunch.

Even InuYasha had to admit lunch had been amusing. The little princess took it upon herself to start Tsuru's sword fighting lesson, correcting the tall youkai's stance and grip the princess confidently invited the crane to attack. Faster than a human's eye could register the princess found herself disarmed and on her back.

Finally, unable to control himself InuYasha burst out laughing, after several seconds he was able to choke out "Princess, Tsuru obviously comes from a good family, and just like humans of his rank he would have had lessons in weapons and self defense. Cranes are generally not known as fighters, but he still would have been taught to defend himself and even if most of his youkai powers have been sealed he is still much stronger and faster than a human of a similar size would be."

Tsuru nodded in agreement adding "I really should have said something earlier Princess; lacking the natural weapons of the more aggressive mammal youkai we cranes have to rely on flight or weapons. Also, I am considerably older than even InuYasha, so while I have never had to fight without my youkai powers, I have had to defend myself on more than one occasion."

Tsuru grunted as he swung his sword, connecting with the large lizard youkai - so much for boring!

Ever since they had returned to the road after their midday meal it had been nothing but trouble. It first started out with a few very low level demon attacks. Nothing to worry anyone, youkai with so little power they were barely more dangerous than regular mortal animals, then a rather vicious boar youkai, followed by an even more aggressive mantis youkai. Now several large lizard youkai were making a very determined attack on the entire group.

Tsuru continued to swing his sword, he might not have all of his youkai strength, but he did have years of experience which put him on a better level than the little princess, though he was no where near as dangerous as the two Inu hanyou.

As the crane continued fighting, InuYasha finished off the two largest lizards that had attacked him and then helped Tsuru with his. Little Yasha had dispatched his opponent without much trouble, had already helped his princess and was just making sure Kagome did not get injured while she was purifying the lizard that had gone after her.

Seeing that all of the lizards were dead Tsuru voiced his thoughts "OK this is now officially suspicious, way too many attacks in too short of time. You told me that you had been attacked very few times since you were separated from your traveling companions, now suddenly continuous attacks. Either I am attracting all of these attacks or someone has become aware of you and your quest."

Joining her mate and Tsuru, Kagome commented "I really don't think it's you, since we got here we have made no effort to hide our presence. These attacks could be some sort of natural response to our merely being here, or an actual attack being fueled or perhaps caused by the very relic we seek. The relic itself may be trying to protect itself by sending these attacks, or it might be testing us. There is really no way for us to know. I say we just continue as we are and see what happens.

*Tsuris is Yiddish for trouble


	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Chapter 21 – The Crown of Destiny**

Hurrying as much as possible, the group raced down the wooded road only to round a bend and suddenly discover that they had left the wooded terrain they had been traversing for so many days to once again find themselves entering a drier, rocky, hilly landscape.

Kagome went so far as to sigh in relief and comment that at least there would be fewer surprise attacks, the barren region affording scant cover from which to launch a covert assault.

Though it was still fairly early, when InuYasha spotted a small cave, (quite narrow, but deep) in one of the small hills they passed, the travelers were more than happy to stop and make an early camp.

With the efficiency that comes with experience, camp was established and dinner started, but it soon became apparent that the two inu hanyou were on edge.

Noticing her mate's discomfort, Kagome ventured to inquire "InuYasha is there something wrong? I don't sense any youkai."

Instead of looking towards his mate, InuYasha glanced at his younger counterpart and shook his head "I don't know what it is, I just feel – not uneasy – just odd. My skin feels like it does right before a lighting storm." Turning towards Yasha and Tsuru the elder hanyou inquired "Do either of you feel it?"

Tsuru immediately shook his head in the negative, but little Yasha shook his head vigorously in the affirmative quickly stating "I feel it, as soon as we entered this little cave it started. My skin is all tingly and... I don't know... I get the feeling that..." Eyes growing large, the young hanyou continued "That I have to look for something." Then nervously glancing at his princess whispered "I think that one of them is here, somewhere close by."

Peering into the dark back of the cave the little princess softly asked "Do you think it's back there somewhere?" Then glancing out of the cave and noting that it was still quite light added "Do we want to look now, or hold off till morning?"

Kagome, sounding suspiciously like her mate, snorted and answered "We're in a cave, who cares if its light or dark outside, it'll be dark back there in the cave. I say lets look now and get this over with. Either there's something back there or this is some sort of false alarm." Then fixing each one of her companions with a steely look stated "Well what do the rest of you say, do we all go and look now or hold off till morning – not that anyone would actually get any sleep or anything."

InuYasha grinned and laughed, hugged his mate, and replied "I don't know about the rest of you, but I say lets go right now and look. That's what we came all this way to do and I for one am curious to see if we find the crown or the relic, or perhaps both?"

That said, InuYasha grabbed their pack and pulled out the stick, bark twine, moss tinder and animal fat torches he had had the foresight to create while still in the forest. Turning towards his companions he jerked his head towards the rear of the cave and exclaimed "Well lets go!"

As soon as the torches were lit the group could see that the cave continued back with no end in sight. Knowing that the two inu hanyou would be able to sniff their way back out without difficulty the five quickly proceeded into the bowls of the hill.

It didn't take long for everyone to realize that they were definitely on the right track. Within a few minuets Kagome, the little Princess and finally Tsuru could sense a strong youki or perhaps spiritual power source. The cave narrowed and began to slant downward, but remained fairly smooth and with each step the feeling of power increased. Up ahead they could just make out that the tunnel they traversed was ending, spilling into what they could faintly make out as a small chamber. Suddenly, InuYasha, who was in the lead, slammed into an invisible barrier and bounced back, saving himself from falling only by his superior reflexes. Next Kagome cautiously reached out and discovered that she also could not proceed forward.

Turning to her companions Kagome sighed proclaiming "It's definitely a barrier, and a powerful one at that. InuYasha can break barriers like this, but I fear he would pull this hill down on us in the process. Does anyone have an idea?"

Tsuru, not familiar with all of the Tessaiga's powers, inquired "Just how can InuYasha break barriers?"

InuYasha mindful of the confined space of the tunnel, pulled and then transformed Tessaiga to it's large active form, then much to everyone's surprise (except Kagome of course) he concentrated and slowly the huge sword took on a red glow.

"This is the red barrier braking form of Tessaiga. The only problem is I've never taken down a barrier without unleashing the full destructive power of the sword. Any ideas?"

Tsuru, mindful of the sword's powerful aura approached as close as he dared and inquired "Tell me all about this ability, could the sword always do this, or did you acquire this power later?"

Not having reached that point in her retelling of their adventures yet, Kagome quickly filled the crane youkai in, how InuYasha had saved the little bat hanyou Shiori and that she allowed him to destroy her barrier creating blood coral, thereby instilling Tessaiga with a barrier breaking ability.

Thinking quickly, Tsuru turned towards the barrier and beckoning InuYasha forward urged "InuYasha I want you to try and very gently strike the barrier, I am hoping that dangerous force will not be necessary, just push – gently."

With Tsuru's words in mind, InuYasha began to slowly push Tessaiga against the barrier. The barrier resisted, but much to everyone's surprise – especially InuYasha's – the barrier began to glow, then bend outward, and finally as InuYasha pushed with all his strength, the barrier shattered.

The moment the barrier fell, a rush of overwhelming power washed over the group, nearly pulling Kagome, the Princess and Tsuru to their knees. Only InuYasha and Yasha seemed to be able to stand up to the rush of pure youki power that surged, in fact the two hanyou seemed invigorated by the stifling power.

As soon as he verified that the others were not in any true distress InuYasha turned to his young counterpart and noted "Sort of reminds me Sesshomaru when he lets his youki really go."

Little Yasha nodded in agreement "You're right, it has a sort of daiyoukai feel to it."

But what neither of the hanyous realized was that as they spoke they were slowly advancing into the chamber and away from their companions.

Within a few moments both InuYasha and Yasha found themselves in the center of the small chamber standing in front of a thick stalagmite as wide as a tree trunk, waist high and covered in a softly glowing moss. The apex of the stalagmite was oddly shaped, instead of coming to a point; it had a flattened top surmounted by a perfect circle that had four equally spaced perfect tiny stalagmites growing from it.

As if in a dream InuYasha and Yasha simultaneously reached out and placed their hands on the circle. At that very moment the circle began to emit a golden glow and before Kagome or the princess could utter a word of warning, the circle separated from the stalagmite, revealing it to be a circlet with four points. The circlet then split in the surprised hanyou's hands transforming into two diadems each with two points. As the hanyous contemplated the perfect crowns in each of their hands it became obvious that the shape of the crown was large enough for a man's head, but the base of the two points were arched, as if fashioned for someone with an irregularly shaped head.

Kagome watched the events unfold as if in a dream, finding herself unable to call out and warn her mate, she could only marvel at the events. InuYasha and Yasha each held a perfect circlet, a delicate crown made out of stone, obviously fashioned for someone with two delicate ears perched on the top of their head. Then, in what seemed like painful slow motion, but which in reality was only a few seconds, each hanyou raised his crown and placed it on their own head.

Each crown began to glow, the light increasing each moment, and then in a blinding burst of light, the circlets seemed to actually sink into the transfixed hanyous who at the moment of absorption cried out in what was either agony or ecstasy, it was impossible to tell.

In a moment it was over, the overwhelming waves of power ceased and the two inu hanyou collapsed to the floor. At the same moment the two humans and one youkai were released from their paralysis and were able to rush into the chamber and over to the two stricken hanyous.

Kagome reached out fearfully, InuYasha lay breathing lightly, his cheeks vividly marked with the jagged marks of his youkai blood. Fearing that InuYasha had transformed, Kagome nervously glanced at Yasha who now also bore the marks of a full youkai. Then much to the miko's relief InuYasha opened his eyes, revealing his beautiful golden orbs. Simultaneously, Yasha also opened his thankfully golden eyes and whispered, "What happened?"

Helping her little mate up the princess inquired "Don't you remember what happened? You and InuYasha found the crown – or should I say the crowns of destiny! It wasn't meant for me, it was for you and InuYasha!"

Glancing at his mate InuYasha asked in awe "Is that true, did we find the crowns? Where are they?"

Kagome reached out to gently stroke InuYasha's now visible markings and whispered "You each put a crown on your head; they glowed and then in a flash seemed to sink into your heads. InuYasha, both you and Yasha now have demon markings, but your eyes are still normal, no red. How do you feel?"

Glancing at his younger counterpart InuYasha could only stare and said "I feel fine, in fact I feel great. I don't feel out of control like I did when my blood took over in the past, I don't have an urge to kill or anything like that." Then looking around the chamber, he added, "But let's get out of here and get back to the cave. I don't want anything else to happen!"

**Authors note**: The idea of InuYasha gaining full youkai markings, but keeping his sanity has been used in many stories, but the one that I was thinking of was Fenikkusuken's amazing work "The Phoenix Blade: Time Lapse" which I highly recommend!

My visualization of the crown of destiny was based on Aragorn's coronation crown in the film "Return of the King" except that the points are arched at the base to accommodate an inu hanyou's ears!


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Sorry about the chapters becoming so short, but they seem to be naturally breaking up into small sections that should be separated.

**Chapter 22 – Power Unleashed **

Once more back in the main cave, the group quickly set about eating their delayed dinner, while simultaneously discussing the unbelievable turn of events that had just transpired.

After checking (several times) that both InuYasha and Yasha were acting totally normal Kagome noticed that Tsuru had eaten very little and was rubbing his forehead. Concerned she inquired "Tsuru are you OK? You've hardly touched your food."

Nodding, Tsuru replied "I'm not sure what's wrong, I feel – odd. It started with that flash of light, right when those crowns were absorbed by InuYasha and Yasha."

Suddenly Tsuru grabbed his head and began to double over. Fearing that the tall crane would tip forward into the fire, both InuYasha and Yasha sprang forward and simultaneously grabbed the youkai. The moment their hands touched Tsuru he arched back screaming, only to pass out a moment later.

Within seconds Tsuru's eyes opened once again and realizing he was still in the grip of the two concerned hanyous, the crane struggled to sit up. Then with wonder in his voice he proclaimed "Its back, I'm back, I'm back!" The excited youkai then jumped up, ran to the mouth of the cave and suddenly transformed into his true form, a huge crane twice the size of a man.

Within moments the crane once more returned to his human form and running back into the cave swept the two stunned hanyous into a joyful hug, exclaiming "Thank you so much, you did it, you broke the spell, my youki is once more unbound!"

Then pulling back from the two flustered men he continued "Now that I have access to all of my youki, I think I know what happened, to the both of you and to me."

As the group once more settled down around the fire, Tsuru, sensing that InuYasha was eager for information began. "First off I am fairly sure that the unbinding of my youki was strictly a side effect of what the crown, or I should say crowns, did to the two of you. The very moment those crowns were absorbed is the same moment I began to feel ill. My own distress slowly increased to the point where I nearly passed out, but the moment both InuYasha and Yasha touched me, it was like an explosion and my youki was once again unbound. Since I am part of the prophecy, I believe I was meant to witness what happened, just so that my own youki could be freed, what other part I may play is still to be revealed, but that I must remain with you and complete the quest is something that I am certain of. Anyway back to my explanation, as soon as InuYasha broke that barrier, we were all assaulted by that overwhelming youki, that both InuYasha and Yasha said felt like that of their daiyoukai brother. Then when they absorbed the crowns they developed daiyoukai demon markings, something which Kagome had told us, during her retelling of your past adventures, only happened when InuYasha's youkai blood completely took him over. Now that my youki is free, I can feel the full effects of the crowns. Both of you, InuYasha and Yasha are more than you were before, if I did not know that you were hanyou I would swear that you were full youkai. In fact, InuYasha your aura is very much like a daiyoukai's, though sitting here as close to you as I am I can still sense that you have some human blood. I believe the crowns are acting as a – filter or perhaps a regulator for your youkai blood, it is no longer bound or subdued, just more controlled the way it is in a full blooded youkai."

Interrupting, the little princess asked "Why is only InuYasha's aura like a daiyoukai's and not Yasha's?"

Smiling the crane replied "While daiyoukai are born with the potential, they must grow and develop their powers to achieve the status of daiyoukai, and to be quite honest, the majority fail to reach their full potential and consequently never become true daiyoukai. Yasha is still far too young, but I am confident that he will eventually grow to the same power level as InuYasha, who as far as I can tell is some sort of dai - hanyou!"

Jaw almost hanging to the ground InuYasha managed to squeak out "A what?"

Laughing Tsuru continued "You are the hanyou version of a daiyoukai. Think about it, your youkai blood is immensely powerful, so powerful you do not dare let it take you over, lest you lose your human heart and turn into a murderous youkai. You say your sword acts as a suppressant, a seal, but it can not regulate, you are either hanyou and in control, or youkai and totally out of control. The crown has taken over the job from your sword and it is allowing you to access virtually all of your youki, with absolutely no loss of control. You will no longer run the risk of succumbing to blood lust or I dare say destroying your human heart, your different natures should no longer be battling each other, and therefore you are even more powerful than you were before!"

With wonder in her eyes, the Princess ventured to add "So this is Yasha and InuYasha's destiny, to gain full control of their powerful youkai blood."

Suddenly, Kagome rose to her knees before her mate and in a single motion pulled the beads of subjugation up and over the stunned hanyou's head proclaiming "I've wanted to get rid of these for so long, I only left them on because of your fear of losing control – that these would be the only way I would be able to stop you from hurting innocents. Now that you can't lose control there's no need for these and I don't want this sort of control over you any longer, I'm your wife and mate, not your keeper."

Moved by her counterparts actions the Princess turned to Yasha and began to reach for his gold slave collar, only to be stopped by the young hanyou's hands upon hers. Looking deeply into his mistress and mate's eyes Yasha whispered "No my Princess, I still belong to you, this is neither the time nor place to free me, perhaps someday, but not now."

Nodding her understanding the Princess replied "I understand, but soon, in the presence of the King, you will be freed and you will take your rightful place by my side. "

Then turning back to the other the Princess continued "Well we've found the crown all that's left is that darned relic!"


	23. Chapter 23

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Chapter 23 – Training Day (Part 1)**

As the group finally began to bed down for the night, InuYasha turned to his small counterpart and nodding towards the cave opening and commented "I think we should spend tomorrow and tomorrow night right here in this cave. It will be a very dark night tomorrow, no moon. I don't want to have to risk all of us being in the open."

Glancing casually at the two hanyou Tsuru smirked and interjected "So that's your time, is it?"

Sighing InuYasha thought for a moment and finally replied "Yes, it's not something we are comfortable with others knowing about, and if you try anything Kagome will purify you so fast you won't know what hit you, on top of everything else we don't actually know what will happen this time, the crowns may have changed the natural order of things."

Tsuru managed to look affronted and huffed "How can you even think such a thing, I would never take advantage of someone at their time of weakness and your secret is safe with me, I would never broadcast such information. You have done nothing but help me; I would never repay your help with betrayal!"

InuYasha sighed, rubbed that back of his neck and explained "I sorry, after all of these years, it's become second nature to distrust others. I managed to keep this information an absolute secret for over 150 years and now there are so many who know it's getting ridiculous!"

Despite the fact that everyone had agreed to sleep in a bit, the next morning found InuYasha up and about before everyone else. He could not sleep, the prospect of being able to access more of his youki was too exciting and he wanted to see if he would be able to accomplish any of the fabulous feats that his brother could. He knew that there was no way he would be able to transform into a giant inu like Sesshomaru could, since he was already manifesting his "true" form, but perhaps he could master some other powers.

Yasha and Tsuru soon joined the early rising inu and the three males moved outdoors, leaving the girls to their slumber.

Tsuru smirked, gazed off into the distance and commented "So InuYasha, do you want to see what you can do?"

Nodding InuYasha replied "Of course I do, but I don't have any idea where to start, what should I do?"

Motioning for the two inu hanyous to sit next to each other Tsuru knelt opposite them and after a moment of thought began "I am no teacher, but I will try and guide you through this as I was guided in my youth. In order to utilize your youki you must be able to tap into it at will. Close your eyes and try to meditate, as you quiet your mind, you should be able to actually feel your youki. It is a primal energy and wild, it is the very heart of your animal spirit, remember that while you are half human you are also half inu; you must tap into that part of your soul. Now both of you see if you can find that part of yourself, if you can, all I want you to do is try and let it fill your body with energy, but don't let it take over your mind. Remember even full blooded youkai can be overcome by their animal nature, it is intellectual thought that keeps it in check."

A bit confused InuYasha interrupted "If it is intellectual thought that keeps animal youki in check how does little Shippo do it? He is very young, and acts very much like a human child, I don't think I have ever seen him act like a real animal fox, and other than having a tail and paws he has never transformed into one."

Nodding again Tsuru smiled and quickly replied "Yes, a good question, higher youkai, that is youkai who have for many generations manifested themselves in a human type form often prefer to actually birth their offspring in that human form, it literally gives the child a head start. Human heads and brains are larger than almost all animals, so being born in a human form allows for more intellectual growth. The trade off is that the child must actually master their youki in order to transform back into their true form. The human form actually becomes the simplest to maintain, even though it is not their true from. That is why there are many pure blood youkai with human like bodies, but with some sort of animal part remaining, either their true animal head or a tail, or even appearing as completely animal, but upright walking like a human. They may have been born into a somewhat human like form, but they still have not mastered their youki enough to completely assume one form or another, or they may simply be too weak to ever make the change. I myself was born in a human like form, I had real feathers and, well rather embarrassing feet, it took me years of training to assume my true form, but once I did I found it much easier to get this form to appear more human. As it is, I rarely take my true form, and I mostly fly using my youki not my wings, having real hands is really so much more convenient than wings. As much as youkai are always going on about their superiority, the truth be told, in their true form, most animal youkai do not have hands and do not posses the sophisticated speech all humans posses. That's also why those drat monkey youki never bother to assume a truly human form, they are so close to human already that they never bother."

Satisfied, and overly informed by Tsuru's explanation both InuYasha and Yasha began to meditate, trying to locate and master their youki.

Within a few minuets InuYasha was able to clear his mind and much to his surprise he began to feel what he assumed to be his youki. On the night of the full moon he always felt more powerful, more 'primal', this seemed very much the same. More confident he encouraged the feeling and let it fill his body and mind, but unlike those horrible times when his youkai blood took over in the past, this time InuYasha realized that he was still very much in control. Opening his eyes InuYasha whispered to Tsuru "I think I found my youki and I'm letting its power fill me. What should I do now?"

Glancing at Yasha, Tsuru realized that while the younger hanyou had located his youki he was still trying to encourage it out from its normal dormant state; he assumed that being so much younger, Yasha simply had not had as much experience with his youki. The younger hanyou had never lost control the way his older counterpart had so his youki was going to be much more suppressed. Then, returning his attention once again to InuYasha, in a quiet steady voice Tsuru proceeded "Your youki is like a reservoir of power, you need to consciously guide it and then draw on it. Let's start with something basic. I want you to think of your youki as a vapor, a cloud that you are sitting on, and then imagine that cloud hovering just a bit above the ground. Once you have that image firmly fixed in your mind I want you to open your eyes and look directly at me."

Tsuru smiled as InuYasha scrunched up his face in concentration, his smile grew into a grin when the hanyou finally opened his eyes.

Holding InuYasha's eyes with his own, Tsuru nodded and whispered "You have done very well, I want you to firmly hold that image of floating in you mind, and then very slowly look down."

InuYasha very slowly and cautiously lowered his gaze and then gasped; he was floating at least two or three hand breaths above the ground. Swallowing audibly the stunned hanyou whispered "Am I doing this?"

Tsuru quickly reassured the awed hanyou "Yes, you have created a youki cloud. As long as your mind is focused on floating you will continue to do so, eventually it becomes second nature. If you imagine yourself rising, you will rise. Think of ascending slowly and you will do so. Go ahead and try to rise, I will rise with you and make sure nothing goes wrong. I am more than fast and strong enough to catch you if you should fall".

It was only then that the still stunned hanyou realized that the crane youaki was also floating at the same distance from the ground.

Nodding InuYasha imagined himself rising slowly into the sky and was rewarded when he realized that he was indeed gently floating upwards. True to his word Tsuru rose at the exact same speed, gently praising and encouraging the hanyou. Tsuru then asked InuYasha to come to a complete standstill, he then asked InuYasha to try to moving forwards, when the hanyou had mastered stopping and starting, the crane youkai then instructed InuYasha in left and right turns. After several more minuets of flight Tsuru instructed InuYasha to gently float back down to the ground.

By now Yasha had opened his eyes, abandoning his own meditation to watch his older counterpart in awe.

As InuYasha gently lowered himself once more to the ground he realized that not only had Yasha been watching, but Kagome and the Princess had emerged from the cave and were now seated near the young hanyou, both looking as awestruck as the little hanyou.

Once he was again safe and sound and standing on solid ground InuYasha cracked a grin, gave his mate a big hug and proclaimed "I can't wait to get back home, Miroku will wet himself with envy!"

**Authors note**: I have always wondered why (in the manga & cartoon) so many pure blood youkai either had the heads of animals (I remember there were panther youkai with human bodies and panther heads) or like Hachi were upright walking animals. Shippo had paws and a tail, but Sesshomaru obviously did not have paws, he had real hands and we assume feet, since he wore boots (as to whether Sess has a tail or not, that's a whole can of worms I so do not want to get into!).


	24. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Chapter 24 – Training Day (Part 2)**

Unfortunately, as much as Yasha and InuYasha wished to continue their intense training, fate was against them.

Once InuYasha had calmed down from his exhilarating flight and bolted down a quick breakfast, both Yasha and he had continued their "lessons". Tsuru had explained to the rather disappointed Yasha that even by full youkai standards he was still a bit young to have a fully developed youki. On the other hand Tsuru assured the young hanyou, that since he now had the same access to his youki as a full youkai he would probably gain an even better control of his powers than InuYasha. Yasha would naturally grow into his power just as a full youkai would, while InuYasha would have to contend with gaining control of his very powerful fully developed and mature youki.

Both InuYasha and Yasha continued to meditate and for the first part of the day they made great progress, but as the afternoon continued both hanyou found it increasingly difficult to find their youki let alone control it.

Just as InuYasha was about to completely lose his patience, Kagome came to the rescue reminding her frustrated mate that the closer the night of the new moon came, the weaker his natural powers.

Finally both hanyou gave up and informed Tsuru that they would have to wait till morning for any further lessons.

Not wishing to detain the now fully restored youkai from his own quest of returning to his beloved for longer than necessary, InuYasha also informed the helpful crane that they would continue down the road come morning, any lessons would be held as they traveled. Gaining control of their youki was wonderful, but the quest still held first priority.

As the sun began to set, both hanyou retreated within the cave and Tsuru was captivated by the sudden and extreme change that washed over the two hanyou, now humans.

At first the crane did not wish to make either of the temporary humans uncomfortable, but as the evening wore on he finally felt compelled to observe "I truly did not believe that ones as powerful as you could really lose all of your youki. To be quite honest, I thought that with the new access to your powers, that you might not change at all, or that the change might only be cosmetic, but I am unable to detect any of your youki, not even the smallest trace."

InuYasha nodded, and replied "I wasn't sure if we would change normally or not either, but this is exactly what happens every month. We're still stronger than a regular human, but not a bit of youki."

Not wishing to make the temporary human any more nervous than he obviously already was Tsuru decided to quickly change the subject and observed "I wonder if we should check the prophecy for new clues, I know we decided that it had become mostly useless since my arrival, but now that half of the quest is completed I was thinking there may be some new information to be gleaned."

Realizing that any distraction was a good thing for the two hanyous turned humans Kagome chimed in "What a great idea. There's a real possibility that we might be able to pinpoint the spot in the prophecy which refers to the crowns. Now that we know what the crown of destiny is and who it was intended to help, we might be able to pinpoint that part. Where I come from they say hindsight has perfect vision* so we should be able to pick it out!"

The quintet quickly gathered around the well worn prophecy and soon relocated the spot where Tsuru's arrival was foretold, they then proceeded slowly, carefully reading each line. It took much longer than anticipated, but finally after reading and discarding several dozen paragraphs of gibberish, they hit pay dirt.

The little princess, reading faster than everyone else, was the first to spot the vital lines exclaiming "Everyone listen to this - 'Liquid stones of power, lie easy on the true ones' heads. Control that which was once wild, gain the power that once was sought'." Quickly continuing before anyone else could interject, the excited princess continued "The stones were once liquid that dripped to make those formations in the cave and probably dripped to form the crowns."

Then before the princess could continue to hog all the fun Kagome interjected "And InuYasha's youki was wild and uncontrollable, and he originally wanted the Shikon jewel so he could gain the power of a full blooded youkai."

At everyone's nod of agreement they once again started to read, looking for the next clue. The one that would lead them as quickly as possible to the mysterious relic they still need to find.

The evening had progressed, the little princess and Kagome had nodded off, but InuYaha, Yasha and Tsuru continued their perusal. Tsuru eventually excused himself, he need to stretch his legs, as it was hard for the lanky youkai to sit in one position for hours on end while in his human form. The two hanyou turned humans barely acknowledge the youkai's departure and return as they carefully read and reread each line.

It was nearly dawn when Yasha excitedly pointed to the text and turning to his older counterpart whispered "Listen to this – 'Wings of power raise you aloft, fly to your destiny, fly to your goal, fly to your home' – you just learned to fly using your youki power, and what are we looking for - this quest is your destiny, the relic is definitely your goal, and it's what you need to get home."

Tsuru who had was aroused by Yasha's excited whisper added "If we need to fly, I can be of help, I believe I should be able to transport Yasha and the little princess with little difficulty, and InuYasha, you should be able to transport your mate if I remain close by to supervise you."

InuYasha nodded, but was cut off from replying by the arrival of dawn's first light. Tsuru looked on in wonder as the two dark haired, dark eyed humans began to transform, first to change was their midnight hair, which in moments bled all hint of black and once again turned to it's near pure white, then glancing down to the two hanyou's hands the crane noticed the regrowth of the deadly claws that the half demon's used to such great effect. Next Tsuru realized that both InuYasha and Yasha had closed their dark brown eyes only to open them a moment later revealing their once more golden orbs, but the most amazing change occurred last of all. Tsuru was mesmerized as both sets of human ears shrank and then totally disappeared only to reappear on the top of the two hanyou's heads as their trademark puppy dog ears.

As soon as their transformation was complete both half demons began to sniff and their ears began to swivel and twitch. Tsuru realized that after a night of what must have been near total sensory deprivation (at least by inu standards) the two were reorienting and regrounding themselves. As soon as the two had settled down Tsuru felt it was safe to comment "We should let the ladies rest a bit more and then let them know of your discovery in the prophecy. We will have to keep an eye out for this location that we will need to fly to, did the prophecy have anything else to add?"

All three once again turned back to the prophecy reading and discarding several more paragraphs only stopping when the two slumbering humans began to stir.

Neither Kagome nor the princess were at their sharpest first thing in the morning so all three males wisely allowed the two females to visit a nearby bush and then offered them cups of hot water flavored with edible flowers to produce an herb tea like result.

Once both girls were more awake Yasha reread his find in the prophecy. The princess, with the ebullience of youth exclaimed "This is just what we were looking for; I just know we are almost there, I can feel it! Now we only have to locate the next clue in the prophecy!"

Smiling Kagome slowly began to speak "I am not sure if we will have to search for more information right now. I have to agree that Yasha found a valid clue, but since we've been able to walk or climb everywhere this road we have been following leads, I say let's keep following the road, I think that it will lead somewhere where we will not be able to follow, not without flying. I believe this road is here just for us to follow, I've been thinking a lot about this. I bet that once InuYasha and I return home, if any of you were to return to this land, the road that we have been following will no longer exist."

Eyes wide with shock, InuYasha asked "You really think things have been set up for us to this extent? That this road we are on is here just for us and our quest?"

Nodding Kagome replied "Yes, I truly do believe this road, this cave; everything is here just for us. I think this quest is bigger than us, bigger than just finding the relic and getting back home, bigger than just keeping the relic out of that nasty old exorcist's hands. We saw it before with the Shikon No Tama, objects of great power do not just stay lost, they have a way of turning up sooner or later**, if this relic is anything like the Shikon was, it has a certain 'life' of it's own, whether it is made of living beings like the Shikon or if it is just made up of energy or raw power it will do it's best to control it's own destiny. The big question is - what does it want us to do? My own personal opinion is these objects should be destroyed. The old exorcist flat out said she wanted to use it to increase her own power, that puts it on the same sort of level as the Shikon and that makes it incredibly dangerous."

Tsuru rubbed his chin and then spoke "If you follow that line of reasoning miko, the crowns of destiny should have been destroyed, but instead they were used as they were meant to and have freed both your own mate and Yasha from the possible loss of their minds and souls."

Nodding eagerly Kagome quickly resumed "True, but I bet the crowns would have been useless to anyone other than InuYasha and Yasha. Just one look at their shape and it was obvious that they would not fit anyone else; I wager that they had no other function or use other than joining with InuYasha and Yasha. The relic on the other hand that's a whole different story, I for one would be very happy if it had one specific user and purpose, but from the way the old exorcist talked, I fear it can be used by anyone with the proper knowledge and not necessarily for good."

Worriedly, the little Princess inquired "If that's the case, what will we do? How will we keep others from using the relic for evil, will it try to corrupt us, or my father, or the scholars, and if you use it to get back home, what will you be able to do to keep the old exorcist from using it for evil?"

Gazing directly into his mate's eyes InuYasha sighed and spoke softly "We can only try to figure out if the relic is good or evil or neutral. As for getting home, if we can't find a way to destroy or neutralize the relic we may not be able to return, the risk to our world might be too great."

On that somber note, the group quietly packed their belongings and one more started down the road.

* Kagome changed the adage "hindsight is 20/20" to "hindsight has perfect vision" since she knows that the others would have no idea about 20/20 vision (or 6/6 vision for our metric readers) since these standards for measuring vision did not come into use till the mid/late 1800's!

** Was thinking of the "Lord of the Ring's" One Ring of Power – those things never stay lost like they are supposed to!


	25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Chapter 25 – Up and over**

It was a somber group that stopped for a quick lunch. The little princess had been brooding over the possible evil that might be unleashed on her kingdom, Kagome brooded over the possibility that she might never be able to return to her own universe. Yasha & InuYasha brooded over their upset mates and Tsuru brooded over all of the youngsters.

The only positive aspect of the morning was InuYasha & Yasha's continued progress in learning to harness their youki. Tsuru was not just pleased with InuYasha's progress, but amazed by Yasha's advancements, for one so young he had a very adult grasp of his powers. Tsuru mused that both hanyou would someday be forces to be reckoned with not just as strong hanyou, but as powerful youkai.

As soon as the quintet resumed their trek down the road, Tsuru decided to continue his levitation lessons with InuYasha. Knowing that their journey would require flying, the crane decided the more practice the better.

Kagome was not too happy with Tsuru's plan as it entailed InuYasha levitating above the road holding his mate. It was one thing for InuYasha to fly alone, if he fell he would recover fairly quickly, if he dropped his mate it would not be such a minor matter and Kagome made sure everyone, including her mate, was cognizant of that fact.

After many reassurances from Tsuru that that he would be right there making sure that Kagome came to no harm the flying lesson began.

Much to Kagome's relief the lessons were not as frightening as she thought they would be. Perched on her mate's back InuYasha only levitated them a few inches at first, skimming down the road at slow speed. Then as his confidence grew (and Kagome's fear lessened) InuYahsa began to gain altitude and speed. Tsuru paced the flying pair as promised and Yasha, with his princess perched on his back, ran down the road, easily keeping up with the airborne trio.

Traveling at full speed for the better part of the day the group made good time covering a great distance before finding a suitable camping spot for the evening. Much to the two Kagomes' delight Yahsa had sniffed out a hot spring and much to the two Inu hanyou's amusement Tsuru could not control his crane instincts while bathing, dipping and preening in the spring once the two females were safely out of sight.

Clean and well rested InuYasha had everyone up and ready to travel early the next morning, but his enthusiasm was somewhat dampened two days later. As he called a halt for the evening an exasperated hanyou grumbled "Not so much as a bump in the road, let alone someplace we have to fly over!"

"I know you're disappointed, but I really think we are doing everything right" Kagome soothed her upset mate. "Let's just keep going another day or two, every time we think we have hit a dead end something turns up. You'll see I know we are getting close, I can feel it."

Sighing InuYasha countered "Too bad you can't sense this stupid relic the way you could jewel shards, at least when we got anywhere near a shard you could confirm our direction."

Taking her mates statement seriously Kagome considered "You know, there might be something to that, if the relic has any sort of aura or spiritual power, you never know, I just might be able to sense it once we get closer, that is if it doesn't have a shield around it like your crowns did."

That evening, as Kagome sat half dozing next to her mate she decided to put her theory to the test. First clearing her mind as Miroku had taught her, Kagome opened herself to taking in her surroundings. Miroku had referred to this expansion of the scenes as almost being the opposite of meditation, instead of looking inward the goal was to look outward. Soon Kagome found herself drifting, half awake half asleep, but totally aware of the world, every breath of her companions, the tiny nocturnal rodents cautiously moving about, hunting the even smaller insects. Then it happened – a tiny ripple. Jerking up she exclaimed "There's something out there, I felt it!"

Jumping up and transforming his sword InuYasha exclaimed "What – what did you feel – are we in danger?"

Quickly reaching out to calm her mate Kagome assured "No there's no immediate danger, what I sensed was some sort of spiritual disturbance. It could be what we're looking for!"

The next morning found a revitalized group speeding down the ever present road. Every hour or so Kagome would stop clear her mind and confirm that the 'ripple' was still there. InuYasha, Yasha nor Tsuru could sense anything out of the normal. As the day progressed, however, the little Princess also began to pick up on the ripple leading everyone to agree that this was something only those with human spiritual or Miko powers could perceive.

Just as InuYasha was thinking of stopping for lunch, a sharp bend in the road brought the quintet to a dead end. The road simply stopped, running into a shear mountain wall.

Taking a deep breath the Little Princess stated the obvious "Well it looks like there's nowhere to go but up."

Forming a cloud of youki Tsuru beckoned Yasha and the Princess over, while Kagome settled herself on her mates back.

After rising well over a hundred feet, the road resumed on a small ridge for no more than a few yards before once again dead ending into a solid wall of stone. The group rose twice more, each time encountering a small outcropping which contained no more than a yard or two of road.

With his usual impatience InuYasha declared "That's it, let's just get to the top of this mountain and find where the road continues. No more fucking around with these teases."

Before anyone could comment InuYasha, with Kagome still perched on his back, shot up at high speed. Quickly following the impatient hanyou, Tsuru followed at a slightly more cautious pace, making sure to keep within catching distance under the hanyou, just to be on the safe side.

After ascending several hundred more feet InuYaszha was gratified to finally reach the summit, which surprisingly turned out to be a mammoth wooded plateau. The road simply began at the edge and continued as if the rise in elevation was of no consequence.

As soon as Tsuru landed with his charges Kagome took a deep breath and closing her eyes noted "The feeling has become much stronger. If we follow the direction of the road it looks like we will be heading in the right direction, somehow I don't think it'll be far now."

Authors Note: I am not very happy with this chapter, but it is necessary to get them moving towards the end! I am very appreciative of everyone who is still reading this story and would love to hear from you -Hint Hint please review and let me know what you are thinking!


	26. Chapter 26

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Chapter 26 – It's a WHAT!**

InuYasha marveled that once again Kagome's words seemed to be coming true. The woods which had appeared to be quite far from the plateau's edge in reality were reached before the sun had set. If there were no major obstacles the possibility of returning home could soon become a reality.

Home soon. InuYasha marveled that he actually wanted to return home. At one time it certainly would not have mattered, but now with friends like Kaede, Miroku and Sango and with little Shippo acting more and more like a son, there really was a world he wanted to return to. Actually had to return to, he was working on convincing the little bat hanyou, Shiori's mother to move to their village, Shiori's very survival would one day depend on a long term stable environment. Her mother would grow old long before the little hanyou would be ready to be on her own, just as Jinenji's was. One day soon InuYasha knew he would have to help Jinenji deal with the terrible loss of his human mother. Hell, he even looked forward to seeing his stupid brother, what the great inu daiyoukai would say about his hanyou brother's increase in power was sure to be amusing.

Noticing her mate's introspection Kagome was curious "What are you thinking about?"

InuYasha smiled and replied "Just thinking about going home and how Sesshomaru will react to my new powers."

Laughing Kagome countered "Well then, we'd best find the relic as fast as we can, get home and let you show off for your brother."

Picking up on the couple's conversation Tsuru inquired "Speaking of your brother, I was wondering about any special powers he might have that you may have inherited and can now possibly access."

Thinking for only a moment InuYasha replied "Let's see, he can fly, not only on his cloud of youki and in his true inu form, but also as a ball of pure youki energy. He's also a poison youkai in both his true and human form, in his inu form his bite can be poisonous and in his human form his claws can be poisonous. In his human form he can also extrude an energy whip from his claws and he retains part of his fur in a long ruff which he can control and use against enemies, that's all we know about, on top his immense physical strength."

Tsuru quickly countered with "Other than using your sword to channel your youki do you have any other methods of attack?"

Smirking InuYasha decided a quick demonstration was in order and turning towards a boulder and quickly channeling his power through his claws cried "Iron reaver soul stealer!" Instantly the boulder was smashed into a dozen smaller pieces.

Looking suitably impressed Tsuru gasped "That's quite impressive! More importantly you were channeling your youki without even thinking. Can you do anything else?"

Nodding InuYasha replied "Yes, if I'm bleeding I can take my blood and harden it into sharp projectiles that I can throw."

Tsuru gave a low whistle "Dam, your very blood is a weapon. I bet once you get complete control of your unbound youki you'll be able to manifest some sort of controllable weapon like your brother's whip, right now both of your attacks are ones you essentially throw, you release your youki as projectiles. That attack you just demonstrated, what did you call it – iron reaver soul stealer – try it again, but don't think about throwing your youki. Think about it streaming from your claws."

Looking doubtfully at the crane youkai InuYasha once again faced a large rock, but this time he concentrated and slowly extended his arm, fingers pointing directly at the rock. Instead of the wild arcing slashes of energy InuYasha's iron reaver soul stealer usually created, thin controllable bullets of youki energy rushed towards the target. Though the bullets of energy were much smaller than InuYasha's normal attack and only lasted a moment the result was devastating, the rock blasted apart with such force that only powder remained.

Squealing with excitement Kagome rushed to her mate's side exclaiming "Unbelievable, you've created a youki gun!" at everyone's look of confusion she added "In my time there are weapons called guns made out of metal, they fire an exploding projectile called a bullet, they're set off by black powder and can kill from a great distance. InuYasha's youki just now acted like bullets being fired from a gun."

Not exactly sure what Kagome was talking about the little princess seized on the important facts inquiring "So do you think my Yasha will be able to do that when he's older?"

Nodding Tsuru assured the little princess "As far as I can tell InuYasha and Yasha are identical in every way, along with levitating I believe Yasha will someday be able to match every feat InuYasha can perform.

Satisfied that her mate would someday achieve the same level of power as his older counterpart, the little princess focused on the immediate necessities, dinner and a good night's sleep. "That's so wonderful, but right now why don't all of you look for our dinner, while Kagome and I start a fire and smooth out the ground here so we can all get a good night's sleep!"

Laughing Kagome had to admit the little princess certainly had her priorities straight "She's right, we're getting close to our goal and a good meal and a good night's sleep will do us more good than anything else."

Pulling his older counterpart along Yasha added, though only InuYasha's hearing was sharp enough to pick it up, "It's always best to do as she says, she'll get what she wants in the end anyway, so it's best not to fight it."

At InuYasha's incredulous look the little hanyou added with a smirk "Her father decreed that she was to marry a Prince of his selection, yet here I am, her mate; as a female she was not to rule her own lands, well I doubt the King will be handing me the crown, do you?"

Nodding his head in understanding InuYasha replied "So she always gets what she wants."

Yasha's smirk grew bigger as he concluded "One way or another, and I'm just glad that I'm what what she wants."

Three days had passed and while the group traveled deeper and deeper into the dense woods that surmounted the plateau, but they seemed to be staying the same distance from the vague feeling that Kagome continued to receive.

As another day passed in fruitless pursuit the little Princess bemoaned "This is ridiculous, no matter how fast we travel towards that 'ripple' we feel, we never get any closer. It's almost like it's running away from us and if that's the case we'll never catch up!"

Kagome, who had secretly been thinking along the same lines, concurred "Think about it, this thing has got to have defenses and what better defense than to run away."

InuYasha thought a moment and added "We need to find a way to trap it in one place and I hate to say this, but we need to split up. Tsuru, Yasha and the Princess should go at it in one direction and Kagome and I should go from the other direction, then we should try and trap it in between. The point will be to trap it so it can't keep hiding from us."

"But how will we know where the others are or in what direction we should be herding it?" was Kagome's question.

Yasha smirked wiggled his puppy ears and replied "That's the easy part, InuYasha and I can hear each other even if we're miles apart."

At Kagome's frankly dubious look Yahsa added "As long as we're actively listening, we'll be able to hear each other over great distances."

"But how will we know what we're looking for?" Tsuru interjected.

Rolling his eyes InuYasha reminded the crane "That's why you will have the Princess and I will have Kagome with me. They will have to guide us and let us know when we are getting close. Hopefully once we get whatever it is trapped we'll be able to identify it as what were looking for."

As Kagome climbed onto InuYasha's back and the Little Princess mimicked her elder counterpart's actions with Yasha, InuYasha advised "Why don't you head out straight to the left while I head out right.

Several fruitless hours later InuYasha was just getting ready to call it a day. He and Yasha had been endlessly circling each other and the "ripple" which was moving in unpredictable spurts and was making abrupt directional changes.

Finally, the two hanyou managed to get into a rhythm, slowly spiraling inward, herding the vague "ripple" into a tight noose.

Suddenly, InuYasha, Kagome still perched securely on his back, burst into a small clearing just as Yasha, the Princess and Tsuru emerged from the trees on the opposite side.

Scanning the small patch of scraggly grass which covered the tiny clearing InuYasha suddenly let Kagome slip off his back as he sprang forward. Abruptly zeroing in on a particular spot of dirt he began to furiously dig.

Moments later Yasha joined his older counterpart in his digging, then after a few tense moments both hanyou seemed to convulse, hands furiously grasping at something in the dirt.

Finally, after what seemed to the others like a small eternity, InuYasha straightened up, hands grasping a small furry object.

Edging closer Kagome ventured to ask "What is it? What did you find?"

Carefully holding out his hands InuYasha displayed his prize and replied "It's a Mountain Mole youkai. No wonder we couldn't find it, it's been hiding underground running through a labyrinth of mole tunnels."

Leaning over to peer at the furry plump rodent the Princess ventured to voice the question that was on everyone's mind "But where is IT?"

"Inside I guess." was InuYasha's prompt reply.

Then before anyone could voice an objection InuYasha felt over the mole's furry stomach and, using a sharp claw to make a clean incision, popped out a small hard object. As the object left his body the mole emitted a loud squeal of outrage, wiggled free of the startled hanyou's grip, expanded to Shippo's size, and morphing into a ball of pure youki sped off into the distance radiating what sounded suspiciously like laughter.

Quickly recovering his wits Tsuru bent over InuYasha's hand and inquired "Well what is it?"

Uncurling his fingers so all to see the ultimate goal of their journey Kagome couldn't help but blurt out "It's a netsuke*!."

*Netsuke – tiny Japanese carvings originating in the 15th or 16th century which are always attached to a cord, the other end suspending a pouch or other container. The netsuke helps secure the cord to the wearer's belt/obi. They can be simple or elaborately carved out of any material including ivory and wood or made out of ceramic.


End file.
